Head in the Clouds
by dorkoriffic
Summary: The diary of Luna Lovegood during her sixth year at Hogwarts, as she manages to survive the Carrows, the Malfoy's Basement, the Final Battle at Hogwarts, and Draco Malfoy's cooking. Funny? Hopefully. Completely canon-compliant except for the obvious.
1. Brown Sugar Pop Tarts

**Luna Lovegood's Diary**

As a warning to all uninvited readers, I would like to inform you that if you so much as open this volume without permission, you will receive a rather nasty curse that will cause every single nargle in a ten kilometer radius to suddenly decide to occupy your sock drawer.

_**August First**_

The day of Bill and Fleur's wedding. Something is going to go wrong.

Daddy thinks I'm being ridiculous. Ginny thinks I'm being overly pessimistic. Hermione Granger thinks I need to get a grip on reality.

Well, I got news for you, Hermione. Reality is boring.

And seriously – Voldemort is on the loose, all the Death Eaters are free, and the battle at Hogwarts two months ago has just made it even clearer that the war is already started, whether we want to believe it or not. We've been lucky to have made it this far into the summer without anything big. Before, they were concentrating on getting Harry Potter. Now that he's of age and has escaped, for the moment, they're plotting. They have a plan, and when it hits, it will be bad.

But today, today seems to be the last bright day for a while. One speck of shining hope and joy in a world that is steadily careening into darkness. I'm just so worried that somehow, it'll be ruined.

So I made Daddy wear sun colors, for luck, and I stuffed my pockets full of Gurdyroots. I'm wearing Mum's lucky earrings and I'm carrying a Sneakoscope up my sleeve. Even though I know that all these small measures won't do a thing, I feel better.

Now I'm sitting at our scarred kitchen table, secretly eating a Brown Sugar and Cinnamon Pop-Tart. I snagged about twenty five boxes the last time I was in Ottery St. Catchpole, and I've been hiding them from Daddy all summer. He doesn't approve of Muggle food. I think he's crazy – Muggle's can't do much right, but the Pop-Tarts are certainly one of their few successes. Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are pretty good too – there's just something relieving about knowing that your candy won't explode, or burn a hole in your tongue, or jump out a window...

Oops – I hear Dad coming downstairs now. Gotta run!

_Later_

I can't believe it – SO MUCH happened today.

The wedding – right. As soon as Daddy and I had flown from our house to the Weasley's (I simply cannot wait until I learn to Apparate) I really felt better. They have a simply gorgeous garden. And the gnomes are such clever little beasts. I was bitten a few times, of course, but it was well worth it for the opportunity to observe them in their natural habitat.

And it was nice seeing all of my friends again. I can see Ginny fairly often, because she lives so close, but I also saw Harry Potter, disguised of course, and Hermione Granger. Ron made her dance for SO long, I thought she was going to just run away. But nothing like that happened – she must really like him. I danced on my own for a while because everyone else was busy, but then I just sat down and watched everyone. I talked to Hagrid for quite a bit – he seemed very fascinated by Crumple-Horned Snorkacks, and it was informative to hear more about the Blast-Ended Skrewts. They seemed much more interesting when I wasn't being attacked by them every Care of Magical Creatures lesson.

So I was really enjoying that when a Patronus came bounding in, hissing a warning that the Ministry had fallen. As if nobody had seen that coming! I have to admit that I was really hoping that we would be safe, that even though horrible things were happening everywhere else, the joy of this day would protect against the darkness. No such luck, of course. Everyone went frantic, and I was pushing through the crowd to find Daddy when it began to feel as if a small animal was having a seizure somewhere in the region of my elbow. I paused, and was nearly run over by Ron. As soon as I realized that it was only my Sneakoscope, Daddy grabbed me and took me home by Side-Along Apparition. It felt as though I was being strangled by a noodle.

And here we are! Somehow writing everything down made it easier to understand. I think I'll be spending a lot of time with Ginny from now on – it's only a quick broom ride, and now that there's so much more information for Daddy to be investigating, I have the feeling that it's going to be very busy at home.

_**September First**_

Back to school yet again. Whoopee.

That is what Daddy calls my sarcastic nature. Hardly anyone sees that side of me, only Daddy and Mum, before she died. Neville sees a bit of it too, but he doesn't usually understand it, hopeless boy that he is.

To be honest, I really did debate whether I should bring this journal at all, because I haven't even written in it for at least a month. But it was a birthday present from Daddy, and it does help to write things down when something big happens. I wouldn't want to forget all these special events when I'm senile and eighty, would I? Although the chances of me living until I'm eighty are pretty slim, what with this war and whatnot...

Moving on from the deep and depressing, I would now like to inform this notebook that I absolutely loathe going back to school. I love Hogwarts, and learning, and the food is terrific (although they never serve Pop-Tarts). But everyone besides Ginny and Neville makes fun of me, and with all the new creepy teachers, I have the feeling that this year is going to be difficult, to say the least.

So I got on the train and started looking for a compartment. Eventually I saw Neville sitting with his toad Trevor in his lap and his mimbulus mimbletonia in the seat next to him. Everything was dripping in Stinksap. Incidentally, the goo does clear up acne quite nicely, and I told him so, but I don't think it made him feel any better. Neville did look fairly pleased to see me, though. I hadn't seen him since June.

"Hey, Luna." he said. "Have a good summer?"

"Not bad." I said, smiling inside. "We went Snorkack hunting in Sweden." We didn't, of course, but it's always fun to see people's reactions when I mention things like that. They try to cover up the fact that they think I'm crazy.

I was not disappointed. "Ah. How nice." Neville said diplomatically, and hastily launched into a monologue about the Chudley Cannons' abysmal performance this year, very obviously trying not to laugh.

Boys. But at least I wasn't the only one who got some amusement out of it...

After that, we lapsed into silence for a while until I saw him glaring with unbrindled ferocity at todays edition of the Daily Prophet. The paper is often junk, but I didn't think it merited that kind of hatred.

Until I saw the headline.

"Snape headmaster?" I gasped in horror. "They can't – THEY JUST CAN'T!"

"They did." Neville said bitterly.

"But he's a murderer! And a traitor! HE KILLED DUMBLEDORE!"

At that exact moment, Ginny poked her head into our compartment, the infamous Weasley blush reaching from her neck all the way past her hairline. "Did you hear?" she said, her hazel eyes glinting in fury. "Snape's -"

"Headmaster." Neville finished darkly. "We know."

She sat down next to me with a loud thump. "Well, we can't let them get away with it."

"Huh?" I asked.

"I have a plan." Her eyes were still glinting, but with mischief rather than rage now.

Neville seemed to be catching on. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Well, how would I know? I'm not a Legilimens, for Merlin's sake."

And then it hit me in a flash. Exactly what I had been longing for all last year, and now it was within my grasp. "Dumbledore's Army..." I breathed hopefully.

"Still recruiting." agreed Neville.

Ginny beamed. "I knew you two would be up for it. The one catch is, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are off on some crazy Voldemort killing job for Dumbledore."

"So we'll have to organize it." Neville finished.

"I'm up for the challenge." I declared.

Ginny grinned. "Mission One: Bother Snape."

"This should be fun." I said dreamily.

"As long as we escape from him with all our limbs attached." added Neville cynically.

"Ah, well, there is that." Ginny said. "But who really needs ten toes?"

We kept talking and planning for the rest of the trip. Once we reached the castle, Ginny slipped away to ride in a carriage with her other friends and Neville and I just sat in silence the rest of the way. The Sorting Hat sung more of the same. Stick together, find unity, learn to discard hatred in order to remain victorious. Yadda, yadda, yadda. Like some of those Slytherin Death Eaters To Be really wanted to become best pals with the Gryffindors.

Dinner was good, and I had three helpings of apple crisp. I wish I had more friends within my house, but nearly everyone I get along with is in Gryffindor. I talked to a few fifth years, but none of them really had a good sense of humor. Or an open mind – one girl spent twenty minutes arguing about how nargles don't exist. We'll see how she feels when some of them come out of the mistletoe and attack her...

So then we went up to our dorm. It was so nice to be here, back in my blue four poster bed. All the other girls are gossiping about useless stuff, so I decided to write for a bit. But now I'm so tired that my handwriting is going all crooked, so I'm going to stop.

_**September Second**_

Well! The first day of classes certainly was interesting, to say the least. I had Potions first, with Slughorn. I'm not brilliant at it or anything, but I did get an E on my OWL. He said my Draught of Living Death was quite good, although it didn't win the prize. Thankfully, he didn't notice that part of it had curdled into a sort of dumpling caked to the bottom of my cauldron. Thank goodness for cleaning spells, or I would've been there for hours.

Then Divination, junk as always, and after that was Transfiguration. I simply adore transfiguration. I got an Outstanding on it in my OWLs, and McGonagall gave us some positively tricky spells to learn. I had mine nearly perfect by the end of class. I may not be as brilliant as Miss Granger, but I'm in Ravenclaw for a reason.

And then it was Muggle Studies. I had never taken it before, but the new administration (the evil one) had made it compulsory. One of the Carrows (I seriously can't tell them apart) was teaching, and she (at least I think it was a she) spent the whole time ranting about how Muggles were evil, foul, mindless beasts. Ginny was pretty much just ignoring her, but some of the Slytherins really were getting into it. And then I had an idea...

I stood up, feeling a bit nervous, and raised my hand.

"If we give them the slightest chance, they'll sneak into our houses and murder us in our sleep! We need to punish them like a farmer punishes his beasts of burden – yes?" Alecto Carrow fixed me with a withering glare. "Who are you?"

"I'm Luna Lovegood." I said boldly. Ginny kicked me in the ankle, but she looked encouraging.

"And what do you have to say?"

I swallowed. "Well, Muggles may not have magic, but they can do a few things right."

The teacher looked furious. "Such as..."

"Pop-Tarts."

That had thrown her for a loop. "Pop-_What_?"

"Pop-Tarts. They're like little cookie pastry things that you cook and eat for breakfast."

Demelza Robins grinned and stood up too. She was a halfblood, and since there were no Muggleborns left she was probably one of the few people who actually knew what I was talking about. "Yeah! The Brown Sugar and Cinnamon ones are the best." she said, talking to me more than the teacher.

"Completely." I agreed. "Muggles make some pretty great candy, too."

"Oh, yeah." We were now pretty much having our own little conversation. "And some soda is really tasty, if a bit overly sweet."

I was really enjoying this now. Even though the Lovegoods were an old family, my mum was a muggleborn and had introduced me to all of the best Muggle things. "And all the other devices they've invented to make up for their lack of magic are very creative."

"Like cameras." Demelza said enthusiastically.

"Yeah!" I agreed. "We actually borrowed that idea from them, just made it more advanced with a special developing potion. And washing machines – crude, but certainly effective."

"And the electricity, too – I think their lack of magic actually contributes to their creativity."

"Oh, for sure. Cars, too – absolutely brilliant!"

I was lost in the conversation by now, but Alecto Carrow brought me out of my trance in a snap. Or rather, with a snap. I don't know how, or why, but she caused the light hanging above to fall onto the floor with a resounding crash.

"Oh, children." she said harshly. "I'm so disappointed in you. Breaking the light – how destructive! Ah, well, you have forced me to give you both detention until you have succeeded in repairing the chandelier – without magic, of course."

"Of course." I muttered, but sat down. Demelza followed me. The Quidditch player is really quite nice, and though she wasn't in Dumbledore's Army the first time, I think she might join this time around.

So I guess we'll have to start the D.A. up again really fast. I knew Hogwarts was going to be bad, but I didn't realize it was this bad. Umbridge wasn't teaching us at all, but these two are teaching us things wrong. Which is way worse. Obviously.

I have tons of homework, and I really should be working on it, but I wanted to write this first. Besides, I did most of it in the library with Neville in my free period. I'm hungry – I think I'll see if Padma Patil has any of those snacks from Honeydukes left.


	2. Snape's Eating Habits

**Oops! I forgot to put the disclaimer in last time. Well, I do not own Harry Potter. This chapter is considerably shorter than the other one, as it's only a bit over two pages, but it is also much more interesting. Oh, and I heartily thank all those wonderful people who reviewed my story.**

**XXX**

**Luna Lovegood's Diary**

I would like to warn all uninvited readers that if you so much as open this volume without permission, I will personally inform Professor Snape that you would like to hear a rather long-winded lecture on the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane. I figured that was worse than the nargles.

_**September Seventh**_

Today was the first meeting of the new Dumbledore's Army. There wasn't nearly so many people as before, but then again quite a few people have graduated, and we just couldn't recruit too many of the younger kids. Neville, Ginny, and I just knew that it was going to be much more dangerous this time around.

So we got Michael Corner, Demelza Robins, Lavender Brown, Seamus Finnegan, Anthony Goldstein, Ernie Macmillan, Hannah Abbott, and Terry Boot. The Patil twins managed to talk their parents into letting them stay, and they showed up too. But it felt so strange, not having any Muggleborns.

We didn't do much – just some basic spells. Shield Charms, Expelliarmus, Stunning, that kind of thing. Ginny demonstrated her Bat-Bogey Hex. It was very impressive, but I really wish that she hadn't had to cast it on me. Let it suffice to say that I will be very kind to Ginny in the near future, in the hope that I will never be on the receiving end of one of her jinxes again.

But even though we've revived the D.A., it seems like we're being too secretive, almost. Like even though we're rebelling, it isn't really satisfying because it doesn't help anybody, nobody even knows about it.

So I'll be thinking about that, but losing our secret to make a point would be dumb. So I'll be thinking, I'll be rebelling and standing up for the cause, and all that kind of thing, but I'll be careful, too.

_**September Thirteenth**_

Ugh! I hate the new, Voldemort controlled, evil teachers. Alecto Carrow is bad enough, what with her brainwashing all the younger kids, but her brother is even worse. Defense Against the Dark Arts is really Learn the Dark Arts and Pretend It's All For Defense.

He just stands there, at the front of the class, talking and talking about all the curses that are most useful in different situations, and looking at us in smug happiness as he describes all the times he's killed Muggleborns, and how if you use the correct curses, you can torture people just enough to reveal information. How experimentation on victims is a great way to test out new spells or different combinations of jinxes and hexes.

It makes me sick.

I've tried speaking out against him, but that man just gives me the willies. I can't think of smart remarks when I'm so nervous. I've said things once or twice, but he always cuts me off and then gives me detention. Neville's positively brilliant, though. He makes these remarks, and even though the rest of us look frightened, he knows we're rooting for him. Ginny's quite good at it, too, but I guess I'm just not brave enough.

In Muggle Studies, though, the two of them are just hopeless. Neville has the basic ideas of things, but that's all, and Ginny doesn't know even that. She's still mumbling about eckeltricity and fellytones. So there, I make sure that Carrow #2 doesn't get too out of hand. She's sent a couple of curses my way, but nothing so bad as the Cruciatus Detentions from Amycus. I hate her, but she doesn't scare me like her brother does.

Ginny, Neville, and I are going to start our first mission tonight. We were thinking of things to help the cause, bring Voldemort down, but we figured that there wasn't much we could do while we were still at school. Until Ginny remembered that this summer, the Ministry had withheld Gryffindor's sword from Harry.

"Dumbledore must have given it to Harry for a purpose." Ginny reasoned. "Even if we can't get it to him, even though we don't know what he needs it for, at least we'll have it and not Snape. If Harry can't have it, there's no reason Snape should be allowed to use it instead."

Neville agreed, and the two of them started working on a plan. I helped them with the logistics and stuff, ("No, Ginny, you can't keep the sword of Godric Gryffindor under your bed. Someone would find it. How about if we put it in the Room of Requirement?") but I'm still really nervous about it. We know that Snape leaves his office at 8:40 every night to go and get status reports from the Carrows. Ginny fancies he also goes and gets a snack from the kitchens, but that's really fairly irrelevant. What does matter is that in twenty five minutes (give or take about three minutes) he'll be back (with doughnuts, Ginny insists) and if we're caught, we'll be in trouble.

It's nearly time to go, and my heart is pounding so hard. I'm scared that we'll be caught, and that the Carrows will torture us. I'm worried about Ginny and Neville, worried that they'll forget the plan, worried that they'll get overconfident. They're so brave – which is why they're Gryffindors, of course. I'm a Ravenclaw because I'm great at analyzing things and making my own decisions, but when it comes down to it, I'm worried that I won't have enough courage in me to stand up and do what's right. It feels like I don't belong here, that even though I know that they need my help, I just won't be good enough. I was brave at the Ministry, but even then I was terrified. I just ignored it and went on, which I suppose is what I'll have to do now.

_**September Fourteenth **_

We were caught.

We were being too confident.

It seemed too easy. We just walked in, grabbed the sword, waved at the sleeping picture of Dumbledore, and left.

That's where the catch was, actually. In the whole leaving bit. We ran into Snape coming back – actually, Ginny was right. He did have a snack in his hand, though it was a blueberry muffin, not a doughnut.

So he brought us to his office, did the whole Nasty Death Eater Headmaster routine, and then just gave us detention. And not with a Cruciatus Carrow, either. All we have to do is go help Hagrid with things in the Forbidden Forest. Hagrid! I couldn't believe it. People are being tortured just for looking at the Carrows funny, and we break into Snape's office and all we have to do is learn to tame Acromantulas.

That should be quite interesting, actually.

Not that Neville and Ginny agree, sadly.

But I feel so much better. I know that if we get caught with the DA, we'll be punished, but now that I've stood up to someone, _really _resisted, I'm not so scared anymore. I'll still be cautious, and I'll still be worried or anxious when we do things, but now I know that I can handle it, that I won't be petrified with fear or just burst into tears and cross over to the Dark Side, and get all my friends killed. I feel so free now, free of all this indecision that was bothering me.

But not free of detention – now I have to go to the Forbidden Forest and try to talk to spiders the size of small automobiles that want to devour me whole.

Maybe not so interesting, on second thought.

**XXX**

**Please Review! Come on, you know you want to...**


	3. Graffiti

**I don't own Harry Potter. If I did, I wouldn't be writing fanfiction, now would I?**

**XXX**

**Luna Lovegood's Diary**

I would like to warn all uninvited readers that if you so much as open this volume without permission, I will cast a spell that will force you to envision Alecto Carrow in a bikini every time she says the word "ain't". I couldn't think of _anything_ worse than that.

_**September Thirtieth**_

Okay.

Neville, Ginny, and I have really started working hard on the DA.

We've been working primarily on reviewing defensive spells, Shield Charms again and more of the same. Most of the new people have caught up really quick, and some invited their friends. Like the Creevey brothers – they must have missed the first announcement, but now they're coming all the time.

We tried to bring back Hermione's Galleons, but not everyone has one, so my job has been trying to replicate her Protean Charm.

It is incredibly hard.

But I've gotten it – mostly. I've been testing it on random pieces of parchment, and I can nearly get it to work. Now I'm trying to make it so that Neville can change the numbers on his own, but coordinating the two spells is nearly impossible. I'm going to have to create completely new Galleons and hand them all out. Which I'm trying to get around, because it'll create more work, because the more things you try to link with the Protean Charm the harder it is to concentrate and the more energy it takes.

But I can do it! It's just pure work. It's wandwork and logic and even when I should be exhausted from staying up late, I'm just so happy. I love doing complicated magic, because I know that once I've perfected everything, I can prove to the world that I am smart and not crazy and that I know perfectly well what I'm talking about. I know that being good at everything is the road to finding my dreams and living them.

Now I just have to live up to it.

_**October Fourth**_

Neville is a complete and utter genius.

Really.

Not just at Herbology, I mean.

Okay, most of his magic is fairly substandard, but when it comes to like thinking? Neville's the guy to do it.

I really like Neville.

So, what happened is that we were sitting around planning our next meeting and Neville's face just sort on lights up and he goes, "GRAFFITI!"

And then I look at him, confused, and Ginny snickers. "What is that?" I remember her asking. "Some kind of lame Muggle candy?"

I nearly died laughing at that one. Wizards are so ignorant of the Muggle world, it's not even funny. No, I take that back, it is funny. It's effing hilarious, as a matter of fact.

But that's not the point, really. The point is, Neville went and explained what he was talking about, and it's brilliant. The plan is, we're going to go and paint a bunch of slogans around the castle, stuff like "Dumbledore's Army: Still Recruiting" and "Down With The Carrows" and that kind of thing. We really wanted to use "Why are you worrying about You-Know-Who? You should be worrying about U-No-Poo! Yes, Severus Snape, _We Mean YOU!_"

But Ginny said no. She didn't want anything that would tie it to her and get her brothers in trouble. Which is completely correct, of course, but it would have been so funny...

_**October Sixth**_

I aced my Potions quiz.

_**October Seventh**_

I bothered the house elves into letting me play around in the kitchen. I invented my own recipe for blueberry muffins. It blew up. How was I supposed to know that you can't mix baking soda and vinegar?

_**October Eighth**_

Life is really boring right about now.

_**October Ninth**_

I think I'm gonna puke.

_**October Tenth**_

Yep. I puked all right.

Madam Pomfrey says I have the flu. This is the first chance I've had to write because I spent all last night puking my guts out.

Merlin, I hate being sick.

_**October Eleventh**_

Well, I'm not throwing up anymore, but I still feel lousy. Ugh. It's so boring, being here in the hospital wing. I wish wizards had TVs. I've just been listening to the Wizarding Wireless, and let me tell you this, Wizard music _sucks_. Celestina Warbeck in particular. She's nearly as irritating as Britney Spears, and let me tell you, that's saying something.

I'm gonna go back to sleep. I just had this really excellent dream that I had a sort of magical ability to converse with Crumple-Horned Snorkacks and they all were worshipping me as their queen and we went and defeated Voldemort, who was wearing a ballerina costume (creepy image, let's just say that much) and then I ran off into the forest with the Snorkacks and lived out my days in the wild with the delightful beasts.

Oh, and they were carnivores, so I fed the Carrows to them. Why can't my real life be so cool?

_**October Twelfth**_

No such luck. Last night my dream was that I was at some kind of family reunion thing and it turned out that Snape was my uncle and then everyone started running around screaming and he captured me and locked me up and forced me to listen to Celestina Warbeck for like eight hours straight.

And then the world started swirling around, and a bunch of Blast Ended Skrewts barged in and started attacking people, and then I was back at the Weasley's wedding, only this time people were dying around me, and I was looking at the faces and they were all people I knew.

Neville, and Ginny, and Daddy, and Fred and George Weasley. Dumbledore. McGonagall. Hagrid. Colin Creevey. And in my head, I saw Mum die again, and then I looked at the Death Eaters, and I still knew them.

Ron and Hermione were looking out through the horrid masks, laughing at the destruction, and then Voldemort stepped out, dressed in his robes, looking as he always did, and then he turned around and I could see that it was Harry Potter looking out through his red, soulless eyes.

And it scares me so much, not just the idea of people dying, but the idea that all the heroes around us aren't as perfect as we think. Is it really so hard for the savior of the world to become it's killer?

Eurgh.

I think I'm going to puke again.

**XXX**

**Please Review, because I honestly want your opinion. Reviews to me are like treacle tart to Harry Potter. Bad analogy? I'm aware of it already. But still – click the little button? Please?**


	4. The Silver Trio, Apparently

**Luna Lovegood's Diary**

I would like to warn all uninvited readers that if you so much as open this volume without permission, I will cast a spell that will force you to envision Alecto Carrow in a bikini every time she says the word "ain't". That's still the worst I can come up with.

**_October Fourteenth_**

I'm out of the hospital wing at last, thank goodness. As I said before, there is nothing to do there. Except homework, and that isn't really what I want to do when I'm sick. But I did get all caught up in most of my classes. I didn't even bother with Dark Arts – Amycus Carrow doesn't really assign real homework, just stuff like practice curses on Muggleborns, so it's not like I do it normally.

I was so happy – Ginny and Neville waited for me to get better to do the graffiti. Us three are going to sneak out tonight and paint the walls. Neville wanted to start big and do the grand hall, but I didn't want to get caught. It's probably being patrolled like crazy, was my mentality. But really I just thought that that room was so beautiful that it really didn't deserve to be messed up. Ginny had the idea of painting it near McGonagall's classroom – everyone in the whole school goes there anyway, and McGonagall is the only one who'd catch us if we did it there. I have a feeling she'd be pretty lenient – she hasn't been assigning any detentions lately because she knows that everyone will just be tortured with the Carrows.

But like I said before, I'm not nervous anymore – because I know that whatever comes my way, I can handle it. Especially now that I can keep solids down for 24 hours.

**_October Fifteenth_**

Oh yeah!

Last night seriously rocked! The graffiti was so cool – Carrows #1 and #2 both had like apoplectic fits when they saw what we'd done. It was awesome!

But the best part was when I was watching and gauging people's reactions, these two Hufflepuff fifth years walked up and were looking at the writing.

"Dumbledore's Army?" The girl with a round face and shiny black pigtails said questioningly. "What's that?"

The boy with blond curls next to her looked at her in amazement. "You never heard of Dumbledore's Army?!"

The girl just blushed.

The boy just looked smug. "Well, you know Harry Potter? He, like, organized it a couple years ago when Umbridge was here."

The girl made a face. "I really hate that woman."

"Who doesn't?" the boy replied, shaking his head, curls springing back into place. "But anyway, the point is that Harry was teaching a bunch of people real lessons, like defensive stuff. And they got caught, and had to stop, but it was this huge deal."

"And it's back?" The girl said, and I got a glimpse of her brown eyes lighting up with something suspiciously like hope.

"Seems like it." Her friend agreed.

"And people can join?"

"I'm assuming that's what the recruiting bit is for."

She grinned wickedly, shaking her shiny black bangs out of her eyes. "I'm in."

And once I heard that, I slipped out from my corner. The two Hufflepuff's wheeled around, eyes huge, blood draining from their faces.

"We-we-we didn't mean it." the boy said. "Really, we didn't."

The small girl set a stubborn look on her face and glared at her companion. "Yes, we did mean it. Carrows suck."

The boy looked anguished. "Maggie..." he wailed. "You know what they do to people who get detentions..."

That was when I decided to put him out of his misery. "Don't worry. I'm not a Slytherin."

And then I looked around, checking for witnesses. I held out my hands, palm up, bending over to shelter what I was doing.

"You?!" said the blond, gasping. "But you're Loony – I mean, well, that is to say -"

Maggie looked awed. "You?" But her tone of voice was different – instead of confused disbelief, a joyful statement of the fact.

I felt like my heart was soaring to the clouds. "Me."

I looked at my hands, studied them, reveling in their defilement.

They were covered in paint. Red paint, gold paint, black upon white upon blue upon bronze. And it would never come off. Ever. Not the walls, and certainly not my hands. I know my spellwork. Somehow, though, I didn't mind much.

I pulled Maggie and her friend into a nearby alcove. "You said you wanted to join Dumbledore's Army. Is that true?"

She said simply, proudly, "Yes."

I nodded calmly, but on the inside I was cheering. "And your little buddy here?" She looked at him, unsure.

"Connor? You up for it?"

"I dunno...it sounds pretty dangerous...I'm not sure if you should join, Maggie."

And then her eyes were ablaze with irritation. "I'm a muggleborn, mudblood even, Connor. I'm in danger no matter what I do."

He sighed. "You don't have to join this group just because you can't do magic as well as purebloods."

And now Maggie was in such a rage that she couldn't even speak. "Is that what you think, Connor Malcolm MacMillan? That just because you're a pureblood and can, what was it, trace your family back through seven generations of witches and warlocks-"

"Nine generations, actually."

"WHATEVER! Do you think that that makes you better than me? That's what Voldemort is up to, you moron! He's turning the wizarding world against us!" Now she was crying, but I couldn't tell whether it was from anger or sadness. "I thought you were my friend! I thought you were on my side! Merlin, just five minutes you were telling me how cool the DA was for rebelling against Voldemort, and now you're just mimicking all the pureblood jargon he's throwing at people. What? You don't like it when I say that name? Well, get used to it, buddy, because he's here and I don't know how we're going to get rid of him, not when people like you are backing him up even when they hate his guts, even when they don't even realize what they're saying." And now I could tell that she was crying from sadness.

"Connor, I think you need to go now." I said quietly.

"Yes. Go-go-go away and never come back. I never want to see you again in my life! You're not my friend anymore, Connor, and to tell the truth I don't know why you were in the first place."

"Fine." he said quietly. "If that's the way you want it. I'll be better off without you anyway." And he walked away, not looking back.

"He was my best friend." Maggie whispered.

"It's okay." I whispered back. "Losing friends is hard, but I'm sure you'll find some new ones. I did." And I reached my hand into the folds of my robes and pulled out a Galleon, slipping it into her hand.

"Do you know how to use this?"

She examined it more closely. "This is a Protean Charm, isn't it? I've read about these. But that's NEWT level magic."

"Well, Hermione Granger came up with the initial idea two years ago, but I actually made this particular set myself. It took a couple weeks of trying though."

"Weeks!?" she said. "You must be really good-but then you are a Ravenclaw. Can you teach me? Please?"

"That's what the DA is for." I told her. "Even though I don't think Harry was envisioning that kind of spell, more the defensive style, he won't mind if I give you some private meetings at Headquarters. Especially since he isn't here anymore and I'm effectively helping to run it."

"Really?" Maggie said, startled. "I knew Neville Longbottom had to be in on it, because he gets in trouble all the time, and I was nearly positive about the Weasley girl. I knew she was there last time, and she seemed the type to take charge. But you? Completely unexpected. You just didn't seem like the type to be the third member of the Silver Trio."

I blinked. "Okay, I have a few questions to follow up that statement."

"Shoot."

"If you didn't learn about the DA until this morning, how is it possible that you were guessing the identities of it's top members?"

Maggie blushed. "I knew there was some sort of secret organization going on, but I wasn't sure of the name. When I saw the graffiti, I thought I'd figured out the name but played dumb in the hope that Connor would give me all the information I needed."

I whistled appreciatively. "Nice one. Why aren't you in Ravenclaw?"

"Apparently my strong sense of loyalty was stronger than my love for the academics. I thought that was a little skewed, but everyone in Hufflepuff is really nice and I'm proud to be one."

I nodded. "Cool. Got it. Next question: what exactly is it about me that makes you think I'm not a leader of the DA?"

At that question, Maggie's normally changed from already pale pink to a deep fuschia. "Well, you're not very popular, and even though you went to the Ministry, you're the one that everyone forgets about. No offense. Oh, and everyone thinks that you're not exactly in your right mind. And even though you're really smart, smarter probably than a lot of people in Ravenclaw and nearly everyone in Gryffindor, nobody gives you credit for it because you don't brag. Oh, and your radish earrings. They throw people off too. Personally, I like them, but that's just me."

Some of her words hurt, but I had asked for them, and I knew that she was right. And the way she said it wasn't mean, just matter of fact. "How do you know so much about me? Like you said, I'm not very popular. Oh-don't answer that. I have a feeling I don't want to know what you're going to tell me. What I really want to know is – 'Silver Trio'?!"

Maggie blew her bangs out of her eyes. "That's just the nickname I came up with for the three leaders of the DA. Harry, Ron, and Hermione are the Golden Trio, of course, because they're always the stars of the show, and their replacements, if you will, are second best. Silver."

I grinned. "That's positively brilliant! Neville is going to love that."

The younger girl's brown eyes lit up. "I was right! He is the unofficial leader of the DA, then?"

"I suppose I can tell you that you're right since you'll be coming to the meeting on-" and here I paused and pointed at the numbers engraved on the side of the Galleon she was still clutching.

Her brow furrowed for a few seconds and then cleared. "The date of the next meeting is disguised as the serial number?"

"As I said earlier, you really should be in Ravenclaw."

She grinned. "That's positively brilliant."

I sighed dramatically. "It's such a shame that I can't take the credit for that idea. Maybe I can say that it was really my idea a few years ago and that the concept was transferred via Wrackspurt?"

Maggie was quiet. Unsurprisingly.

I smiled. "I'm just kidding. Everyone knows that Wrackspurts just make your brain go fuzzy. They can't transfer information at all. Only Enfougebens can."

Maggie forced a smile. "So, I guess I'll see you at the next meeting."

"Of course." I replied, and headed back to the common room.

I heard a muffled sob from behind me as I turned the corner. I looked back and saw Maggie standing there, face crumpled, tears streaming down her face.

I walked back, put an arm around her shoulders. "What's wrong?" I asked soothingly.

"I'm sorry." she choked out. "It's just that-it just hit me-Connor was my best friend and now-now he'll have turned all my other friends against me. And even though I know that there'll be people that I'll meet through the DA, it's just hard to face the fact that I'm going to go back to the Common Room and nobody will be on my side."

I felt so horrible for her. Not so long ago, I'd been in the exact same position as her. But then, there was no one to comfort my tears except Moaning Myrtle. Let it suffice to say that the ghost isn't exactly soothing. My goal in this situation was to be more comforting to what I think is my new friend than Moaning Myrtle.

"It's okay, it's okay, it'll all turn out okay." I chanted. "If your friends would dump you because your blood isn't good enough, then I don't know why they're your friends to start with. I promise that whatever happens, I'll stick by you. I don't know you yet, but I think I want to. I don't have that many friends either, but I think you'll make a pretty good one."

She nodded feebly, and wiped her nose on the sleeve of her robes. It was pretty gross, but everyone does it, especially when they've been crying or have a cold. "I'll be fine now." she said, her voice quivering.

I looked at her. "I think you'd better come back with me anyway."

"Who am I to protest?"

"See? I'm starting to like you already."

So she came back with me to the Ravenclaw tower. As we walked in, Michael Corner frowned. "Hey, Luna, you brought a Hufflepuff back with you. She's not supposed to be here."

I hoisted a smile on my face with a lot of effort. "Michael, I'm so sorry to hear about the colony of nargles that has obviously made its home inside your cranium. I mean, I can't think of any other reason for you to make a comment like that..."

He was quiet after that, though I'm fairly sure he rolled his eyes at me. But I'm used to that.

I introduced Maggie to Padma Patil. I've gotten to know Padma a lot better over the past month or so, and she is really nice, not shallow like her sister sort of is. She doesn't judge people by how they look or by the blood that runs in her veins.

So Padma took one look at Maggie's tearstained face and pulled her upstairs to her dormitory. "Your name is Margaret, right?" she asked the fifth year.

"Well, Marguerite, actually." she conceded. "My mother's French. But call me Maggie. Please."

"Sure." Padma said. "So, I think I'm going to give both you and Luna makeovers."

"What?!" we said in unison.

Padma sighed. "I've learned from Parvati that one of the most therapeutic experiences is having someone give you a makeover. Maggie, you look like you need cheering up. And Luna, well, you don't know much about giving makeovers so you're going to receive one instead."

"I'm cool with that." I said. "It's a friday, so we can stay up late. Just one condition – I get to choose the music."

"I can live with that." Padma said. "Just – no boy bands, please?"

"Of course not!" I said, affronted. "I thought you were pureblood, anyway – how do you know about that?"

"Lavender, who's Muggleborn, got Parvati into the Backstreet Boys and we had to listen to a Backstreet Boys marathon all summer vacation, punctuated only by brief bursts of N'Sync."

"Poor you." Maggie said sympathetically. By then she was cheering up a bit. "I'm in for the plan, though."

"Great." Padma said. "Now sit here."

I assumed that my turn would come next, so I pulled my magically modified CD player out of my bag (took me all of Easter break third year to figure out how to change it so it ran on magic and wasn't effected by Hogwarts). I put Coldplay on to start. I figured that I could ease them into my more, ah, interesting selections later.

So the three of us spent hours just sitting and talking. I definitely want to be friends with Maggie – she seems more like me than you'd think at first. When Padma gave me a makeover, I looked in the mirror and didn't see me anymore. I saw a girl who was actually fairly pretty who just happened to look a lot like I did. And Maggie looked simply gorgeous when Padma was done with her.

We were talking and Padma brought up the fact that the school was throwing a Halloween ball this year.

"Why?" I asked. They'd never had a ball before.

Padma sighed. "Well, the official reason is to celebrate a holiday that holds great significance for witches and wizards. But everyone knows that the Carrows are starting it to celebrate the day You-Know-Who killed Harry Potter's parents."

"They are aware that it's also the day Harry Potter beat You-Know-Who, correct?" Maggie asked.

"I'm guessing they don't like to dwell on that bit." Padma said.

"Hey!" I said. "Why doesn't the DA throw a 'Harry Beat Moldy Voldy Once And He Can Do It Again' celebration a few weeks after? We'll use the Room of Requirement and make it Carrow-proof like we do for DA meetings."

"Terrific idea." Padma agreed, and Maggie nodded acquiescence. "So, anyway, the point is, are either of you going with anybody?"

And then we spent forever just talking about superficial topics. It was great to just forget about the war going on and talk about who's asking who the the ball. It felt so good to be able to act my age for once.

**XXX**

**My longest chapter EVER – and I did it in just two entries! And one doesn't really count. I wrote my first Original Character this chapter. I would love your feedback on how I did developing Maggie. I really don't want her to turn out a Mary Sue, so please warn me if she starts to act too Mary Sue-ish. And – use a review to do that! Please no flames, though, just constructive criticism. My goal is to get 16 reviews before I update – so help me with that!! Oh, and sorry it took so long, but I started high school and have SO MUCH HOMEWORK it's not even funny.**


	5. Glinda Who?

****

Luna Lovegood's Diary

Okay, uninvited readers, by now you know the drill. You read, I cast a nasty spell that will cause you to look like Snape in a fluffy pink prom dress for the next eight hours, you learn your lesson, and at some time I go and get some pudding. Same old, same old...

_ October Nineteenth_

Well. Quite a lot happened in the last few days, so much that I was too busy to write. Today, Maggie came to her first DA meeting. It was quite dramatic, especially when she met Ernie MacMillan. I hadn't realized that he had a brother, but Maggie sure knew.

When he saw her, he frowned. "You're Connor's friend, aren't you? What are you doing here?"

Maggie frowned in return. " I used to be his friend, actually. USED to be. And I'm here because I think Voldemort and the Carrows suck, and I want to help bring them down."

"Okay. Good reasons." he modified. "Then why isn't Connor here too?"

"I dunno. He's your brother."

"Okay." Ernie said again. He was losing, and I knew he could tell. "Then why aren't you two friends anymore?"

"Because he said that cause I'm a Muggleborn I'm not as good at magic as purebloods. And then I accused him of inadvertently aiding Death Eaters."

"He did?!" Ernie said in outrage. "Stupid boy. I guess he did deserve what he got."

"Not gonna argue with you there." Maggie said, grinning mischeviously.

"Okay, people!" Neville called. "Time to start. Who knows how to do a Stunning Spell? Everyone?! Wow! Great! Okay..." he paused, and motioned for me and Ginny to come nearer.

"What is it?" I asked.

"We've taught everybody the basics by now." Neville explained. "So I was thinking that we could move on to Patronuses again? I know it's a bit of a jump, but a lot of the people here have already started working on them and it's going to take a long while for everyone else to learn. With all the dementors around, I think that this takes priority over a lot of other stuff."

"I agree." said Ginny.

"Me too. How should we start?"

Neville smiled. "I think I have an answer to that."

So we spent all that meeting teaching people how to start Patronuses. Most people could only get silver steam, but a few could get a hazy shape and some of the DA veterans were producing corporeal patronuses.

It was way cool.

So, afterwards, Ginny, Neville, and I hung back and cleaned up. We were pretty sure that the room would clean itself, but we also thought that cleaning it ourselves would, in a way, make it happier, and we wanted to stay on its good side.

Okay, so that's weird, but whatever. That's not the point. The point is that once we were about halfway done, Neville waved Ginny ahead and said, "You go ahead, Ginny. We'll finish up here."

"We will?" I asked.

"Yes. We will." he said.

I shrugged. "Sure."

So Ginny left and then the two of us were just standing there, alone. Neville looked very nervous.

"So, why are we here?" Looking back on it, I was probably very irritating, but I can just be so clueless at times it isn't even funny. Well, it is, but only sometimes.

"I wanted to ask you something." Neville said. We were standing practically on the opposite sides of the room, so he came and sat next to me on the slightly smoking couch (Dennis Creevey had started a small fire in his attempts to create a Patronus).

"Luna," he began, "Would you like to go to the Halloween Ball with me?"

I have to say, that was pretty unexpected.

"As friends, you mean?" I asked.

"Well, actually," and I swear Neville was blushing, "I was thinking more along the lines of, erm, slightly more than friends, but, I guess, if you don't want to, then just friends would be okay. Yeah."

I grinned. "More than friends is okay with me."

His face lit up. "Really?"

"Sure." I said. "So, when should we throw the Voldemort Sucks party?"

"I was thinking right after the Halloween Ball, actually. If the Carrows are running it, it can't be all that much fun, so we can all leave about an hour and a half in and come here instead."

"Perfect!" I replied. "Ginny, me, Padma, and Maggie will start planning that."

"What about me?" Neville said. "I feel so...so...left out."

I rolled my eyes. "You're a guy. No offense or anything, but Ginny and Padma are like masters at planning these kinds of things. I'm not, so much, but I guess I can help decorate or something. And work with setting up spells. But the point is, they want it to be a surprise."

Neville shrugged. "I can live with that."

"Good." I said.

And I stood up, pulled him along with me, and flung my arm around his waist. "Come on. I have to go back to the dorm and finish up a Potions essay."

Neville sighed. "I have a Charms theory paper due, too. I'm barely scraping an A, so I should leave."

And with that, he wrapped his arm around my shoulders and we walked out of the room.

So, as you may have guessed, I really really like Neville.

Wait, you?! Who do I think I'm talking to?! I've set up the necessary precautions so that nobody who I don't want to read my diary can. And I don't want anyone to read my diary. What am I, going crazy? Crazier, I mean. Talking to people who aren't there.

Eurgh. I'm tired. I'm gonna go to bed – wait. I wrote this instead of my Potions essay. Crap.

_October Twenty Fourth_

Yeah.

So today Ginny and I went 'dress shopping'. Yes, that's right, dress shopping. Of course, we're not allowed to leave the premises, so that made it a little more complicated. But Ginny had the simply brilliant idea of going to the Room of Requirement and wishing for a huge dress shop kind of set up.

So Ginny just waltzed in there, pulled a simple navy blue dress off the hanger, tried it on, and looked fantastic. But I, on the other hand, had it nowhere near so easy. Every time I tried on a dress that I even remotely liked, Ginny would toss it aside.

"But I really liked that pale blue one!"

"No. It's too plain."

"Then just let me wear my silver robes! THOSE sure aren't plain!"

"Yeah. They're freaky."

"GINNY!"

She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Now try on this lavender one."

"Ginny, I hate purple. Can't I try on that red one?"

She sighed. "No. You're a blond. Red would make you look washed out. Pastels are the look you want to go for."

It went on like this for about an hour and a half until I finally put my foot down. "Come on! There has got to be a better way to do this!"

Ginny smiled evilly. "Oh, there is. Here – what's the first thing you think of when I say the word 'dress'?"

"Uhhhhh..." I said, trying to conjure a good mental image.

"Got one?"

"Yep."

Ginny giggled. "Okay, turn around."

I turned around. And then I nearly fainted. A pink, frilly, ruffly monstrosity was hanging innocently on a hanger, it's extremely full skirt swaying slightly. "Oh. My. God. What is that??"

"Apparently, it's what you imagine when you hear the word dress."

"It has satin roses." I said in shock. And then I frowned. "How did you get the Room of Requirement to do that?"

"I asked it to."

I stared at the – _thing_ – and sighed. "This room can be too helpful sometimes."

Ginny just laughed. "Go try it on."

I snorted. "Absolutely not."

Ginny stared back at me. "Absolutely YES! You will put that dress on or I'll cast a Bat-Bogey Hex on you."

I put the dress on.

"You actually look good, Luna!" My friend squealed.

"Um. No. I mean, thanks. But I'm not wearing that!"

"Why not?"

"Uh..."

"Here. Have you seen yourself in the mirror?" Ginny grabbed me by the arm and dragged me in front of a floor to ceiling mirror.

I stopped, dumbstruck.

"See? I told you it wasn't so bad."

"That's not it." I said. I felt like I was about to burst into hysterical laughter.

"Then what?"

I started giggling. "I look like-"

"What?"

"Like-"

"WHAT?"

"Glinda the Good Witch!"

Ginny stared blankly at me. "Who the What Witch? Is this something we're learning in History of Magic? Because if it is, you know I just sleep through that class."

Then I laughed even harder at the idea of Glinda the Good Witch being in History of Magic, so it took a while until I was calm enough to explain. "She's like, this random lady who wears a pink dress and floats around in bubbles while a bunch of munchkins dance around in the background."

Ginny blinked. "I'm not going to question that statement."

I sighed. "She's fictional. She's from a Muggle movie, okay? They thought, well, lots of things, and that's a prime example of how wrong they were."

"Well, whatever." Ginny said. "The point is, you look really good!"

I rolled my eyes. "You seriously expect me to wear this thing?"

She looked at me flatly. "Um, yes?"

I sighed. "Okay, but on one condition..."

"What?"

"I get to remove at least half the ruffles, all the bows, and quite a bit of the tulle skirt. Enough so that it's not a freestanding monument anymore."

Ginny laughed, but agreed. So my first (but hopefully not last) date with Neville involves me looking like I'm not in Kansas anymore.

Brilliant.


	6. The Dance Part I

**Luna Lovegood's Diary**

** I'm at a loss for inventive curses right now, so if you read this I'll just have to force feed you chocolate chip cookies for a few hours while making you watch a movie. About four times in a row. Oh, and the chocolate in the cookies is unsweetened, and the movie, _The Brave Little Toaster_, while not bad on its own, once it has been translated into Klingon...**

**_October 31...hmmmm...sorry, it's November 1st by now. The whole midnight bit has passed me by. My bad._**

Well.

I have so so so much to write about, I don't know where to begin!

The dress. I'll start with the dress.

Well, that pink monstrosity had to be, ah, _edited_. Heavily. So, I removed all the satin roses, all the bows, about seven eighths of the volume of those hideous puffed sleeves. What was I THINKING whe I conjured up that...that...Ugh!

So, by the time I was done with it, the dress was wearable. I'm ashamed to say that Ginny actually had to put Petrificus Totalus on me for me to comply with the whole hair and make up bit. I really just didn't think that was necessary, but apparently is is. Necessary, I mean.

So, she made my hair wavy, not quite curly, and twisted it into this knot at the back of my head. As for the makeup, well, it went on my face and some of it was sparkly. I'm not really familiar with such things.

So, here I was, standing in the used-to-be-forbidden third floor corridor (which was where Neville had agreed to meet me, I'm not sure why he wanted it to be there) and Neville walks up, and stands there. Just. Stands. There.

I smiled. "Wrackspurt got you?"

He blinked. "Yeah-I mean, no-wait, what?"

I sighed. "Nah, for something that serious it's got to be a Blibbering Humdinger. Though they are quite rare nowadays...well, it sure isn't an Umgubular Slashkilter. If it was, you'd be on the ground with slime oozing out of your ears."

"For the sake of my sanity, I'm going to ignore that."

"Good plan, Neville!" I said encouragingly. "Anytime you come across something that makes you uncomfortable, you should just ignore it and hope it disappears. Remember, if you can't see it, it must not be able to see you!"

"Luna?" he said, cocking his head to the side.

"Yes?"

"Was that, by any chance, sarcasm?"

"Quite possibly." I agreed, rocking back and forth on my heels.

"Uh-huh. Luna, do you know that you look incredibly beautiful tonight?"

I contemplated this for a few moments. "No, but I guess I do now."

"That's right. You do." he told me, and paused again. "Luna, do you know that you look extraordinarily like Glinda the Good Witch?"

I stared at him in disbelief. "How do you know about her?" I stuttered. "You don't even know the difference between a TV and a microwave!"

He rolled his eyes. "Of course I do! You watch videos on a TV, but a microwave is the thing with glass lenses."

"Uh, that would be a microscope."

"Whatever. You use them both to perform open heart surgery."

I stared at him incredulously. "Now I'm going to stay far away from you if I ever need an operation."

"Right." he said. "Good plan!"

"Was that sarcasm?" I asked.

"Yes." Neville said flatly. "It was. Now, we should go down before all the food's gone."

I grabbed his hand and laced my fingers together with his. "Sure! But on the way, you have to tell me where you saw that movie."

"Okay, but on one condition."

"What?"

"You tell me something about yourself. Anything, really, as long as it's interesting."

I nodded. "Sounds like a fair bargain." I admitted, and together we began walking towards the nearest staircase.

"So, you know that I live with my grandmother?"

"Yes."

"Well, let it suffice to say that it gets BORING during the summer. I can't work with magical plants, and the nonmagical ones are great, but..."

"I know." I told him. "And..."

"Well, I was so bored last summer that I was going on a walk-"

"That's your idea of fun?"

"I went to a muggle area and wore my school robes, complete with hat, and walked around counting the number of people that laughed at me."

"How many was it?"

"Two hundred forty nine. In about one hour."

I grinned appreciatively. "Nice."

"Thank you. So, I was walking past this one muggle's house and I saw this big plastic bin and there was a TV and VCR poking out of it. So I opened the lid, pulled them out along with some, like, video things."

"You went Dumpster diving in order to watch The Wizard of Oz?"

"Well, that's not my favorite movie..."

"Oh? Then what is?"

"Well, The Wizard of Oz comes in just ahead of The Brave Little Toaster and Aladdin, but behind Toy Story."

"And in the lead is...."

"Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure." AN: If you haven't heard of it, Google it and read the Wiki page.

I paused. "Why am I not surprised."

"So, what's the interesting fact about you?" Neville said, raising an eyebrow.

"I don't like marshmallows."

"That's not so extraordinary." Neville shrugged. "I know plenty of people that can't stand them."

"I also don't like whipped cream."

"Now, that's just freakish."

Sigh. "I knew you'd say that."

We walked into the Great Hall and found a table next to Ginny. She was sitting there, completely beautiful and completely alone, writing furiously. I leaned over her shoulder and managed to see the words "Dear Harry, I know you will never read this but-" before she covered the writing with her arms.

"Great to see you, Neville!" Ginny said brightly. "Great to see you reading over my shoulder, Luna!"

I blushed. "Sorry."

"It's okay." she said. "But do it again..."

I winced at the thought of what she could do to me if I made her mad enough. "Got it."

XxX

I'm sorry there was such a long wait for such a short chapter! But I've just started NaNoWriMo, in which I write a 50,000 word novel in one month, so with that and schoolwork, I'm a tad busy. Therefore I'm going to put this story on hiatus for about a month. I'm sorry, but I just don't have time to write!

But expect the rest of this chapter to be online eventually, probably around the first week of December.


	7. The Dance Part II

I'M BACK! In return for the long LONG wait, here's the longest chapter yet. And I still don't own a thing...shoot...  
Warning: Music featured is not Canon-Time Period compliant because I'm too lazy to look up 90's music. I also give TwiLyght (who wrote that piece of FanFic legend, the Hogwarts Blog) all credit for their idea of introducing Muggle music to the citizens of Hogwarts.

**Luna Lovegood's Diary  
Am too happy to think of a curse...  
**

Same time, Same place, all that jazz...

So we were just sitting with Ginny and talking. She was threatening me, Neville was threatening her, and I was playing with the centerpiece.

Did you know that pumpkins bounce up to seven feet into the air if you use the right angle and amount of force? AN: They don't really. Well, I'm not positive because I've never done it, but I think it's a safe assumption to make. Remember, Luna has MAGICAL pumpkins! Do not try this at home. DO NOT!

Well, we were doing that and then the food came.

It was good food.

So we were eating and that kind of thing, when Neville suddenly looks up from his plate and says, "Luna. You never told me something about yourself!"

I blinked. He was right. In all the excitement (Did you know that the Carrows don't like it when you bounce pumpkins?) I'd forgotten.

I bit my lip, trying to figure something out that would be a secret but not of the overly humiliating or pity inducing type. "Uh, sometimes I like to tease Moaning Myrtle by telling her that the Ghostbusters are going to come get her."

"Aw, come on, Luna!" Neville rolled his eyes. "Everybody teases her! Maybe not in such a creative way as you, but still!"

"Fine." I conceded with a sigh. "Let's see...I enjoy painting portraits of people?"

"That's awesome! And exactly what I was talking about. I wish I could paint..."

I smiled weakly, glad I'd left out the part about me painting a portrait of HIM...on the ceiling of my bedroom, no less...

Eurgh. Now THAT would be embarrassing if it ever got out...

"That's why you were so good at our, ah, decorating session!" Neville realized with a grin.

"Yep!" I said, then pulled off the gloves the RoR had provided for me to hide the incriminating evidence. "I've still got the paint on my hands."

"Wow." Neville said with raised eyebrows. "Isn't there any way to make it come off?"

"Yeah, it's only on the top few layers of skin or so, so in about a week it'll be gone." I sighed. "I'll miss it though."

Neville smiled. "Ah, well. One less thing to convict you of 'wrongdoing', I suppose."

"Oh, look!" I said in excitement. "I think the music is starting!"

Indeed it was. Neville turned to look at the stage and grinned in agreement with me. "Good, this is getting sort of boring."

"What?" I said in mock horror. "Are you suggesting that I'm not a fascinating person to talk to?"

"No, of course not!" Neville said immediately, then stopped and sighed. "That was more sarcasm, wasn't it."

"Yep!"

He just shook his head. "Well, let's just watch, kay?"

"Okay, fine!" I gave in with a grin.

Which then slid off my face like butter on a bald monkey.

Because Amycus Carrow had taken the microphone and was beginning to talk.

"Aw, no..." Neville moaned. "I could see this coming, but..."

We sat there in misery as he gave a lecture on how important this day was in pureblood history and how it would be commemorated by true magical folks for ever.

"Get a life, Carrow." Ginny mumbled with a smirk. I gave a small smile back, but inside I was seething. How dare they do this? Talk about MURDER as if it was something to be proud of!

Then I grimaced wryly. Of course they could talk about murder as if it was something to be proud of. They worked for Voldemort! In their minds, it WAS something to be proud of!

I felt sick. Not sick to my stomach, like I was earlier. No, this time I felt sick at heart.

And so then, just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, it did. "Now," Carrow began, "We weren't able to get a real band to show up for this dance, so me and my sister and Snape will be providing the music tonight."

Not even the Slytherins cheered at this remark.

"Please don't tell me Snape is singing!" Neville muttered in horror.

"No," I said in pain, "It looks like Alecto will be taking care of that. Snape seems to be playing the violin."

"And Amycus?" Ginny asked. "Don't tell me he's going to be playing guitar."

"No." I answered, confused and incredulous. "It looks like he will be playing the cowbell."

"Cow bell?" Neville snorted.

"Oh, come on!" Ginny scoffed. "You don't expect me to believe that!"

About twenty seconds after that remark, she believed it. "My ears...." she rasped. "They're bleeding!"

"Oh, no!" Neville groaned. "I think he's going to start singing backup!"

"L, la la la la, la!" Amycus squealed, his voice magnified by a spell.

"Make it stop..." Ginny moaned.

"And I didn't think it could get any worse!" I said, watching in horror as Snape picked up his violin.

"Actually," Neville said after about thirty seconds of his playing. "He's fairly good."

Truth was, Snape was excellent. "So that's what he does with his spare time." Ginny said. "He plays violin."

"What, exactly, though, is he playing?" Neville asked. "My grandmother has made me listen to practically every classical piece of music ever written and I don't recognize this at ALL."

We sat in silence for a bit longer, and then it hit me.

"Oh my God!" I said in horror. "He's playing The Immigrant Song!"

"The WHAT?"

"It's by Led Zeppelin." I explained. "Famous Muggle song. Obviously, the Carrows haven't a clue what they're doing. Some Muggle Studies teacher she is!"

"Okay," Neville said. "Everybody else is dancing, so let's do that for a couple songs or so."

"And then leave!" Ginny instructed. "Because this music is giving me a migraine!"

Neville and I walked out onto the dance floor, but the cacophony that out teachers were producing was, quite simply, impossible to dance to.

"That moron!" I hissed. "He keeps changing the tempo! It's the one thing a cowbell has to do, and Amycus is incapable of it!"

"That's not exactly surprising." Neville said, with an eye roll. He grabbed me by the hand and pulled me into a niche in the side of the great hall. The others were all filled with couples resolutely trying to drown out the terrible music by snogging ceaselessly. Well, I think they'd be there regardless of the music, but whatever. At first I wondered what on earth Neville was doing over here.

But I understood immediately after he pulled the DA galleon out of his pocket. "That's it!" he sighed. "The party's starting. NOW."

"No," I corrected him. "In twenty minutes. Maggie, Ginny, Padma and I need time to set up. And Colin Creevey."

"What?" Neville said indignantly. "You let Creevey help decorate but not me? How is that fair?"

"Oh, you misunderstand." I said. "The Creevey brothers promised to do the music for us if I modified their iPods and speakers to run on magic."

"Oh." Neville said. "I suppose that's okay then. Okay, you guys go set up and I'll spread the word around."

"Great!" I said, and then left. Padma was already sitting with Ginny back at the table, and I saw Maggie talking to a couple of Gryffindor fifth years by the door. I nodded to her and it seemed as if she saw me because I saw her leave the room.

I approached Ginny and Padma, trying to force my face into an expression of extreme sadness. That was not only the signal we had arranged earlier, it would also attract the attention of other DA members who would understand it. And the non DA-ers would simply think that Neville Longbottom had dumped Loony Lovegood, which wouldn't be a surprise at all.

Ginny put her arm around my shoulders and I left the Great Hall looking like I was about to cry. In reality, I was trying to not laugh, but both produced the necessary shaking shoulders and shortness of breath, so what does it really matter?

Meanwhile, Padma had walked over to her sister Parvati and was whispering something into her ear as the pink-clad beauty danced with Dean Thomas. Most would assume it was a piece of gossip about my and Neville's presumed breakup, but the truth was that it was a message about the beginning of the new dance. Parvati was nearly as fast as the Galleons as far as information spreading goes, and much less suspicious.

Maggie was waiting for us outside and together the three of us began walking upstairs. Padma caught up with us at about the third floor.

"The message is on it's way." Padma notified us. "So, are we going with color scheme one or color scheme two?"

"One." Maggie and Ginny said together.

"Two." I said.

Padma rolled her eyes. "Guys..." she sighed. "It's a little late to be arguing."

"One is too boring!" I said in exasperation.

"Two is too weird!" Ginny countered.

"It's not weird!" I said as we stepped onto a moving staircase. "It's black with orange bats! That follows all the Halloween requirements!"

Maggie blinked. "No," she said. "That's color scheme one. Color Scheme two is an enormous mural of Voldemort being viciously killed."

"What?" I said in outrage. "I thought we threw that one out long ago!"

Padma just sighed. "Black with bats it is." she declared. "Oh, the Creevey brothers already set up their stuff so they'll be up in about ten minutes."

"Great." Ginny said, and then clapped her hand to her forehead. "Oh no!"

"What?" Padma asked.

"We don't have any food! And the room can't conjure it, remember?"

"Oh, yeah!" Maggie said. "I'll run down to the kitchens and grab something!"

"Okay." Padma said. "But just get snacky stuff, okay? And lots of pumpkin juice, or punch, or something like that."

"Punch?" Ginny said with an evil grin.

"The nonalcoholic type!" Padma clarified immediately.

"Okay." Maggie said, and ran back down the stairs. We continued up to the Room of Requirement and stopped in front of the tapestry.

"Well." Ginny said to Padma. "I believe it is your turn to command the room."

She nodded, and began pacing with a look of intense concentration on her face. The familiar door appeared, and we entered.

I smiled. "It's perfect!" I said happily. "Did you Anti-Carrow it?"

"Yep!" Padma said proudly. "Here, Ginny, let's do a few last minute arrangements of all this stuff."

Ginny complied, and I began putting up more protective enchantments. I was sure the room had taken care of all of that, but it couldn't hurt to make sure. I threw up a few evil detecting charms, a couple curse reflectors, and Muffliato. Hermione Granger had taught it to me over the summer during those times when she, Ginny, and I would spend time together. She told me to only use it when I absolutely had to, because Snape had created it and nobody wants to use spells created by HIM. Well, I figured the situation wasn't desperate but it would help, and besides: I wanted to make sure it worked before a time came when when the situation really WAS desperate.

I finished and turned around. I smiled even more: the room really was perfect.

The walls were black and shiny, so reflective I could see my face in the surface. Orange and black bats drifted eerily about ten feet off the ground, magically suspended. Most of the room was covered by a dance floor made of dark polished wood, and the remaining floor space was taken up by a bright orange carpet with the table where the food would go. The Creevey's stereo system was set up in one corner. The room was lit by eerie, bobbing candles emitting a faint green light, but the widespread pale light was more than enough to illuminate every square inch of the room.

Colin walked in next to Maggie. They were laughing and talking, Maggie with her arms full of food, Colin carrying a box presumably full of CD's and his iPod.

"Wow." he said as he took in the setup. "Just...wow."

"I take it we chose our decorations well?" Maggie said, walking over to the table and depositing her armload of comestibles.

"Definitely!" Colin agreed, depositing his load of musical items and setting them up.

The first guests began trickling in. Some looked thrilled with the decorations, some looked thoroughly unnerved.

Neville came in near the end of the flow of people and walked over to the wall by the music setup where I was standing. "Nice job!" he marveled. "And this room is even more soundproof than I thought it was!"

"Ah." I said. "No, that would be the muffliato I set up."

"Well, whatever it is, it works. So, does the music start soon?" he asked.

In response, Colin who was standing a mere five feet away smiled and turned on the speakers.

"Well." Neville said. "This is better than the Carrows, certainly. It's very good, actually. I think I may have heard this before."

"It wouldn't surprise me if you had." I told him. "This is U2. It's very popular."

We stood in silence for a bit. Neville was listening to the music, and I was looking for Ginny among the crowds of people.

Neville took me by the hand and led me out onto the dance floor. People were just beginning to dance, so we were about to join in when the music abruptly changed.

Half the people there looked quite pleased with this development. A few Muggleborns or halfbloods were snickering, and the remainder of people were looking stunned and shell shocked.

"Ok." Neville said, voice pitched a bit loud to reach over the blaring music. "What is this?"

"This is something that Colin is going to have to explain right now." I said, and set off through the crowd back to the music corner, pink skirt swishing behind me.

"Colin!" I said in irritation. "What are you THINKING?"

"But Luna!" Ginny protested, appearing out of nowhere. "I quite like this!"

"Well, I do too, as a matter of fact." I told her. "But this kind of thing is something you need to be eased into gently. Look at poor Hannah Abbott! She's crying!"

"Her boyfriend just dumped her by owl post, Luna. Of course she's crying." Colin cut in. "And what's wrong with this stuff?"

"They swear a lot!"

"So? They've heard it all before."

"It's hard to dance to."

"No it's not! Have you seen the music video? The whole thing is one enormous dancing session!"

"It's depressing!"

"Okay, you win that one." Colin said with a sigh. "No more My Chemical Romance."

"You can play it." I said with a sigh. "Just play Welcome to the Black Parade, or Teenagers, or one of their less creepy songs. I mean, Helena? What are you trying to do, permanently traumatize these people?"

"Well..." Colin said with a grin.

I rolled my eyes. "Just stick away from the depressingly emo, okay? I like that kind of thing, but you're scaring too many people. Normally I'd think that that's hilarious, but right now the last thing they need is something else to be afraid of. Right now they just need a night of pure fun, and MCR isn't fitting it." AN: I absolutely LOVE MCR, I'm just assuming that most people Hogwarts wouldn't.

"Fine, fine." Colin said with a sigh. He switched it away from Helena and started playing Viva la Vida by Coldplay. The happiness levels of the DA rose drastically.

I made my way back to Neville. "Sorry about that." I told him as we started to dance. "Had to take care of that."

"The song wasn't so bad." he said.

"I'm glad you feel that way, but most people, well, don't."

"Yeah, yeah, very true." he said.

We danced in silence for a while, and then I spoke up again.

"Neville?"

"Yes, Luna?"

"You can't dance at all, can you?"

Neville flushed. "Well, ah, no."

I smiled at him. "That's okay." I said as the song shifted into something less recognizable. "Just-can you please get off my foot?"

Neville turned an even darker shade of red. "Of course!"

We walked back over to the snack table and got pumpkin juice. Then I stopped and sighed again. "Colin!"

"No, I'm Neville."

"Not you!" I said with an apologetic grin in his direction, and returned to Colin's station.

"Yes, Luna?" he said.

"I love them and all, but please! Refrain from playing Panic! At The Disco at all costs."

"Fine, fine." Colin said. "How's this?"

I smacked myself in the forehead. "No. You are not playing SAFETY DANCE!"

"They all like it." he pointed out helpfully.

I turned around and looked.

They did all like it.

"Well, they're morons." I sighed. "Look, just play it and then pick something better. Is that clear?"

"Crystal." he said.

We went through a few more repetitions of that sequence before something truly drastic happened.

Blaise Zabini walked in.

As the tall Slytherin entered our Halloween party, the entire room fell dead silent.

"Damn it!" Neville said eventually. "I mean, nothing to see here. Move along."

Blaise rolled his eyes in that condescending way all Slytherins have down pat. "I know this is a, what was it? Oh, yes, "DA" meeting."

"Well, in that case, everybody EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!" Neville shouted. But Blaise just rolled his eyes.

"Don't worry." Blaise said languidly, stretching. "I'm not here to report you. I'm here to sample some pumpkin juice. Take in the gorgeous decorations. Dance with a pretty girl or two."

His comment was met with complete and utter silence.

"Look." he said, all the bravado gone and his voice filled with complete honesty. "I'm not here with the Carrows. I'm not here with Snape. I'm here because I've seen what they're doing to the Mudbloo-I mean, Muggleborns. And I don't really like it."

Nobody said anything.

"The Zabinis are Switzerland! Figuratively, I mean. Not literally, that would be creepy. Cool, but creepy."

Silence. Again.

"We are neutral." he continued. "We do not side with anybody. We just get sorted into Slytherin and make our way up into the hierarchy of Wizarding life. We answer to nobody but ourselves. All we want is power, and before we've gotten it by siding with the dark. But I look at all the people in my house who used to be my friends and see that by joining He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, they haven't gotten any power. All they've ended up with has been a lot of pain and I don't want that. You-Know-Who has told my family to take a stand. He said to them, either you're with me or against me, no more of this neutral stuff. They chose your side-well, our side now, I guess. Because now the Dark Lord is out to get us, and I figure if my Mum can stand up to him, I can too."

There was a short pause, and then Ernie MacMillan began clapping enthusiastically from where he stood next to Susan Bones. "Bravo!" he cried. "Bravo!"

More people chimed in, until nearly everybody in the room was cheering enthusiastically. "Go Zabini!" they cried, or "Score one for filthy traitor Slytherins!"

Okay, that one wasn't exactly a cheer, but it's the sentiment at heart that matters, right? Actually, I think that one was Ginny, and that makes it completely okay. Right?

And then came a surprise that nearly overshadowed the rest. Blaise walked across the room and kissed Padma Patil.

When they surfaced for air, silence had returned. All eyes were back on him.

"Okay," he admitted. "That might have had a bit to do with my decision too."

A couple people laughed, but everybody else just returned to their previous activities.

The music returned, normal again. I had just added Fall Out Boy to Colin's list of music he can't play (they are not only emo, they also kind of suck) when Neville grabbed me by the hand.

"What?" I said cluelessly.

"Well, ah, er..." Neville stuttered.

"Out with it already!" I laughed.

"Will you teach me to dance?"

I smiled warmly. I'd been doing a lot of that recently, thanks to him. "Of course."

Most of the younger students had cleared off by now, so it was just fourth years and up dancing and there was plenty of room for me to teach him.

I quickly learned that he simply wasn't very good.

"Ow, Neville!" I complained. "That used to be my foot!"

"Sorry." he said with a wince. "I have coordination issues!"

"Trust me." I replied with a sigh. "I know. Remember that time when you were in third year and I was in second, and the dementors attacked Harry at the Quidditch game?"

"Yes..." he said warily.

"Well, when you stood up to see what was going on, your scarf whipped around, smacked me in the face, and knocked me off the bleachers."

Neville chuckled, then caught himself. "Er...I'm sorry! I didn't realize..."

"Don't sweat it." I told him. "I wasn't in the hospital wing as long as Harry, I just broke my arm."

"Oh, Luna!" he said. "I'm so sorry!"

"I told you, don't sweat it!" I lowered my voice theatrically, looking around as if someone might be spying on us. The only people left were Padma, Blaise, Maggie, Colin, Ginny, and Ernie MacMillan, who was talking to Susan Bones.

"What?"

"Your mind was being controlled by an Aquavarius Maggot. It wasn't your fault."

Neville smiled. "Thanks."

"No problem." Colin was back to playing metal, but I didn't care. Nobody left did.

I looked over. Him and Maggie were laughing together hysterically. Maggie's face was bright red, and Colin was bending over he was laughing so hard.

Ginny was sitting on the floor in the far corner of the room, arms wrapped around her knees. Padma and Blaise were sitting at a table that had appeared out of somewhere and were talking animatedly about something. Ernie was lecturing Susan Bones, who was nodding off.

I looked back at Neville. The song had just shifted to a slower, more acoustic tune: Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. AN: You should go to YouTube and play that song right about now. He smiled. "May I have this dance?"

"If you promise to not step on my toes." I told him. We started rotating slowly on the spot.

"Thanks for coming to the dance with me." Neville said.

"It was my pleasure." I responded, and then I stopped dancing. "Oh, this is ridiculous!"

"What?" he said, face puzzled and vaguely sad. "What did I do?"

"You're leading the dance all wrong!" I sighed. "Like this!"

And then the dance shifted. It was still clumsy, still just a little awkward, but now we were moving, in time with the music. It didn't feel perfect like it always does in the storybooks. But it felt right, like we were meant to be here, together.

The lights had changed somehow. They weren't green and eerie, they were soft and white and thoroughly honest. I could feel his palms sweating, and suddenly my heart was pounding liike mad, faster and rougher than the music.

It was still playing, but somehow we had stopped moving and were just standing in the middle of the deserted dance floor. Zabini, Padma, Susan, and Ernie had all left. Ginny was still in her corner, and from what I could see Colin had his arm around Maggie.

But that didn't really seem to matter to me right then. All that mattered was that he was here, with his arms around me, and we were staring at each other-

And then he kissed me.

And come on! What else is there to say?

**XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**  
So...did you like it? 11 whole pages, a personal best!

Now, for the next chapter I want to skip over the time between now and Christmas, because it'll all be just pure fluff (not that it hasn't been so far) and I want it to move quickly.  
So here are your options:  
1.I just don't write it. I put in a quick summary in the next chapter and just move along.  
2.I write the month of November like I'm supposed to, but it's exceedingly boring.  
3.I write November in the form of a third person one shot that's Padma's POV on Luna and Neville's relationship.

So tell me in a review, because I honor your opinion. WARNING: If no feedback is received, I'll go with option #3. If you like that one anyway, well, tell me anyway. Please?


	8. AN

This is not a new chapter, sorry, this is just an authors note telling you that my parallel story is two thirds of the way up and named "Feet Firmly On The Ground"

Merry Christmas, with extra special thanks to xCharlie-Groupiex, who reviews every chapter. Thanks so much!

Here's the link, or I'll try to link it.

There is no hyperlink mode. Well, just copy and paste into the URL bar, that'll work. Thanks again!

.net/s/4740897/1/


	9. Blue Roses

Well, I'm back, and maybe my directions were unclear, because it appears that nobody has found my oneshot about those three months. So, here's a short summary:  
PadmaBlaise  
MadamePinceFilch  
Lots and lots of LunaNeville. Lots and lots. Well, I didn't describe that much of them, but it was there, well, it was implied.  
Also, pretzels.  
Anybody interested, again, it's called "Feet Firmly On The Ground" and here's the URL:  
.net/s/4740897/1/Feet_Firmly_On_The_Ground  
just copy and paste it into the URL bar, really, I swear it'll work.  
Or you could just find it on my profile. That's probably easier.

**Luna Lovegood's Diary**  
Okay, fine. Read it if you like. Well, not if you're an evil wizard, because there's a lot of classified information in here. But this? THIS? I don't want to keep it a secret! I want to shout it to the WORLD!  
Still, if you ARE evil, I'll have to hunt down Ginny and get her to cast her BatBogey Hex on you. Get it? Got it? GOOD.

_**December Twenty-First**_

Oh.

Sweet.

Merlin.

My heart is pounding so hard, it feels like it'll decide to turn into a bird and beat its way straight out of my chest. I can't believe it. I can't believe it!

Calm, I need to calm down, I must! Okay, okay, breathing deep....

Hey! Neville! Stop reading over my shoulder, you! Hey...I mean it....what? No, of course I won't make Ginny use the Bat Bogey Hex on you...

But if you don't stop I might....

Okay, okay, he's gone. So here's what happened.

We were standing out on the Hogwarts grounds by the lake, the day before we were to leave for Christmas break. Classes were over, we had all packed (magically, of course) and we were just having a bit of fun. I was laughing with Ginny and Maggie, and Neville was arguing about something or other with Blaise Zabini. Who, incidentally, has been a great help with the DA. Padma was charming the snowflakes falling around us into different shapes, then enlarging them and throwing them at the Giant Squid.

So it was just like that, and it all seemed so NORMAL, and then Neville walked over to me, and then he smiled at me, and said,

"Merry Christmas!"

"Merry Christmas to you, too!" I said with a grin. "I have a Christmas present for you, you know. Do you want it now or tomorrow on the train?"

"Now might be best." he told me, and pushed a strand of my hair out of my eyes. "I have something for you, too, you see, and we should probably just exchange them now because my gift is a little hard to transport."

"Is it a dragon?"

Neville rolled his eyes. "Do I look like Hagrid?"

"Do you really want me to answer that?"

"No. No, not really."

"Well, you don't. He's a little taller, y'know?" I told him teasingly.

"Do I ever." Neville snorted.

"Well," I said, wrapping my arm around his shoulders. "Here's your present." I pulled it out of my pocket, and handed it to him.

He opened it.

"Wow!" he said in surprise. "I didn't know you could knit sunglasses!"

"They prevent the Heliopaths from blinding you very well." I told him solemnly.

He looked very thankful for this present. "They're very-spirited."

"The gold lion roars when you say the password." I informed Neville. He took it stoically.

"What's the password?"

"Guess." I said playfully.

"Ravenclaw?"

"No."

"Crumple-Horned Snorkacks?"

"Not even close."

"Chudley Cannons are Losers?"

"No."

"Follow the Yellow Brick Road?"

"Ooh..closer, but no."

Neville rolled his eyes. "I give up. What is it?"

I smirked. "Be excellent to each other..."

"And Party On, Dudes!" Neville finished. "Very funny. Now, come here."

I complied. He placed his mittened hands over my eyes and gently led me forward.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"That's a secret." He said. We walked in silence for a time; I could tell from the feel of the ground beneath my boots that we were in the fringe of the Forbidden Forest. "Okay." Neville told me at last. "We're here." He removed his hands from my eyes and turned me around.

I gasped.

There was a tree of some sort in the middle of a clearing, and though it as December, somehow there were still delicate white blossoms on it's branches. A thin coating of frost decorated the entire tree trunk, intricate swirling patterns standing out against the bark.

I looked down and saw that roses, blood red roses, my favorite, were poking through the snow, and as I looked closer I noticed that they were growing before my very eyes. Frost slowly grew over the blossoms, paling the intense color. I looked up from the beautiful sight and saw a-

Blue rose. Yes, BLUE. Magic can do nearly everything.

It was growing quickly about ten feet away. I ran to it and hesitantly reached out a finger to stroke the velvety petals of the midnight colored rose. I didn't think I'd EVER seen anything so incredibly beautiful.

"Oh, Neville." I said, slowly turning around then running back to him and kissing him resoundingly. "I love it! It's so...perfect."

He grinned, evidently pleased with himself. "I'm glad you like it. But there's more..."

I looked at him, mouth open in disbelief and dismay. "Really? But you did ALL THIS...and all I gave you was a pair of knitted sunglasses."

He rolled his eyes. "Luna, that gift was far from worthless. Those protection, secrecy, and warding charms you put on them were some of the strongest I've ever seen. Only McGonagall and Dumbledore-well, Hermione and Harry too, could have done that."

"But-" I protested.

He put his mittens over my mouth. "Look, Luna." Neville told me quietly. "Just by existing, you give me all I could ever need. Without you, my life would-well, actually, it would be worth living, but living it wouldn't be nearly so much fun. I love you, Luna Lovegood, more than you could ever believe, and that's why I have this."

He fumbled through his pockets, mumbling things to himself like "Oh, honestly, I feel like Hagrid," and "Where is the darn thing?" and "I knew I should have taken Gran up on her offer of a second Remembrall."

"AHA!" he exclaimed at last, and handed me a small box.

I opened it.

"Dear God..." I said, looking at its contents.

It was a ring.

The band was white gold, with delicate patterns like the frost etched into it. And the stone was a sparkling midnight blue gem carved into a dainty rose like the one I had loved so much. "Neville..." I said in a small voice. "Is this....."

He got down on his knees, tripping somehow and falling flat on his face in the snow. He pulled himself up, flushing furiously, and looked at me.

"Luna Eleanora Lovegood." he said quietly. "Would you like to marry me?"

I couldn't say anything.

"Oh, I don't want your answer now." he continued hurriedly. "I want you to think this over-REALLY consider this. But...." although his mouth remained straight, his eyes held a hopeful smile. "Hold on to that ring for me."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Okay, guys. I'm really, intensely sorry for the long wait between updates...but was it worth it, for that chapter?I've really been losing interest lately. Right now the story is complete fluff, something I'm not very good at writing, and I wasn't sure where I wanted to go with this. But now I have a plan, and the story is about to get decidedly less fluffy. Now, since Luna is going to be in an awkward position for writing from now on, I'll be writing in either just normal first-person, without the diary bit, or I'll do third person. I can see the benefits of both-opinions?

Oh, and I'll be posting another oneshot soon, so....just thought I'd add that. It'll be called the One Ring-guess what it's about?

PLEASE REVIEW!!!


	10. PART TWO: Anything But That

Oddly enough, you have TheRugMaster to thank for this relatively quick update. They suggested adding different POVs to the story, and the idea caught on. Thanks again to xCharlie-Groupiex for being such a great reviewer!

** Neville's POV**

"Ginny?" he asked his scarlet-haired friend. "Where did Luna go?"

"The bathroom, I think." Ginny was flipping absentmindedly into a battered copy of Confronting the Faceless, looking for interesting spells Snape had neglected to teach. "Why?"

"Nothing big." Neville said, brushing off the weird feeling of uneasiness that was permeating his mind. "It's just-shouldn't she be back by now? I mean, she was writing in that diary of hers, and then she went to the bathroom, but that was nearly half an hour ago!"

"I'm sure she's fine. Who would she be in danger from?"

"Oh, I dunno, maybe DEATH EATERS???" Neville replied testily. "She's one of the leaders of the DA, maybe they've taken her as an example to the rest of us."

Ginny looked up from her book, paling. "Merlin, I hope not."

Neville stood up and tugged his robes straight. "I'm going to go look for her." he said resolutely.

"I'll come too." Ginny declared imperiously, mouth set into a hard line.

"No, you won't!" Neville snapped. "You'll stay here with the others, where you'll be safe. I won't have you getting captured too!"

"You need backup!" Ginny protested. "What if there really are Death Eaters? You can't fight them all by yourself!"

"She's right, you know." Blaise Zabini informed Neville imperiously. "We should all go-strength in numbers, you know?"

Padma and Maggie nodded in agreement.

Neville sighed. He was outnumbered. We have to go, NOW! he thought. Every moment we waste increases the chance that Luna is in real danger.

"Fine." he said. "Now come. We have to hurry!"

The five students ran through the aisle of the Hogwarts Express, ignoring the food trolley and giggling first year girls in their desperate attempts to find their friend.

They all burst into the girls bathroom, Neville and Blaise earning nasty looks from the girls in the neighboring compartment.

It was empty, but there were clear signs of a struggle.

"Oh, damn it." Neville said quietly. He knelt down and picked up a scrap of black fabric. "I think this is definitely Luna's."

Ginny nodded in agreement. "It has that scorch mark from when she got too close to an oven in the kitchens. And this?" She held up another scrap of black fabric. "Definitely not hers."

Padma wrinkled her nose. "Ew. It smells like..."

"Horse manure and grape Kool-Aid gone bad." Maggie chimed in.

"I guess Death Eaters aren't all that great at taking showers." Blaise murmured. "That makes quite a bit of sense, actually, Crabbe and Goyle only washed about once a week. Made the dorm room smell terrible."

"Look," Ginny told him impatiently. "We can't just stand around. We have to find her! They could be doing ANYTHING to her right now! They could be killing her! Hell, she could be DEAD already!"

Neville felt like his insides had taken a short vacation, then returned filled with ice. No. he thought over and over, in a kind of desperate mantra. No. No! NO! Not that. ANYTHING but THAT!

Padma stood up from where she had been crouching on the floor. She swayed back and forth in time with the rocking train. "They're not going to kill her." she said, brandishing a dirty scrap of parchment through the air. "See?"

Neville took it from her hands and began reading. It said,

_ Xenophilius,  
We have her. She is alive-for now.  
You know what we want. Give it to us, or you'll never see your daughter again.  
We hope you make the right choice.  
Most sincerely,  
You know who we are.  
_

"This is not good." he said aloud.

"Way to go, Einstein!" Ginny snorted, rolling her eyes. She snatched the parchment away and flipped it over.

"A dark mark." Maggie breathed, eyes wide. "God, I hope Luna's all right..."

Zabini was flushed, infuriated, and edgy. "Longbottom." he snapped. "Don't go after her."

"What?" Neville's jaw dropped. "Why not?"

Zabini's mouth hardened into a thin line, reminding Neville suddenly of Minerva McGonagall. "It's what they want." he explained tersely. "I hate to break it to you, but there's going to be at least twenty Death Eaters at HQ, where I'm sure they've taken her, and you're good-just not that good. One of them will get you. You'll be captured. Then you'll be tortured. Then you'll be killed. It's just the cold hard truth. Neville, we need you here. You're the leader; without you, we will fall apart and eventually the Death Eaters will get us. We can't afford to lose you."

Neville frowned. Why does he have to be right all the time? Someday, I swear, I'll get him for making me admit this... "Okay. So I can't go save her-who will?"

Ginny stuck her chin out defiantly. "I will."

"NO, YOU WON'T!" All five other students snapped at once.

"Why not?"

Padma blinked. "They'll use you to get to Harry." she said dully. "They'll capture you, take pictures of you being tortured...maybe even send a body part or two to him. He'll come, and then they'll have him and all our hopes of victory, and then they'll have won, won EVERYTHING. And we CAN'T let that happen!"

"So who's going?" Maggie asked, hands on her hips. "I'll go, if you need me."

Padma and Blaise locked eyes; they appeared to be arguing wordlessly. After a time, Padma nodded curtly in defeat. "Nobody's going." they said in unison.

"What?" Maggie and Ginny gaped.

Neville didn't say anything, but on the inside he felt a train going far too fast, and one wrong move, one stray item placed in his way would send him off the edge, make him lose control.

"She's safe." Zabini said, pointing to the letter. "They'll knock her around a bit, maybe even send one or two Cruciatus Curses at her, but she has to stay unharmed or she's worthless to them. You, on the otherhand, in fact, ANY of us could lose our lives at any moment if we risk a rescue mission."

"Think back to fifth year." Padma continued. "When Harry tried to rescue his godfather, all you three got hurt; Hermione nearly died, and Sirius Black did die. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

Neville felt like punching something. "Yes." he seethed. "And I'll listen to you! I'll let Luna stay at this HQ place, even though she could be...could be...

"HQ? Where is this HQ place, anyway?"

Ginny gulped. "I know." she said quietly. "And you're not going to like it..."


	11. The Darkness

I have these nice things I'm sure you're all familiar with. They're called midterms. They're the reason I'm back to taking incredibly long breaks between updates. Also, I was winter retreat with my church... All I can say is that I'm sorry.

Ginny's POV

"Malfoy Manor?!" Neville shouted. "You want me to leave her THERE?"

Blaise rolled his eyes. "No, of course not. I want you to storm in there, raise a huge fuss, hit Lucius Malfoy with a particularly nasty hex, and bring Luna safe back home. But we just can't DO that, Neville, and you're going to have to learn to live with that fact pretty damn quick."

Neville's eyes blazed and his face remained stony. "I understand." he told the others through gritted teeth. "But I don't like it."

"Oh, come on Neville! NONE of us like it, so stop trying to make it seem like we don't care about her! We DO!" Ginny had her arms crossed over her chest and was glaring at Neville. "I care! She's my best friend!"

"Yeah, well," Neville said nastily, "It sure doesn't seem like it."

Ginny's face turned stark white, even her freckles paling, and then the blood returned to her face and she flushed, bypassing red entirely and going straight to that shade of maroon her brother so loathed.

"How DARE you say that! I want to save Luna just as much as you do! It's just that I-I-I just know that we can't!"

"Can't or won't?"

Ginny felt like he had punched her in the stomach.

"Won't." she said softly, only just realizing it herself then. A single tear tracked it's way down her still pink cheek. Ginny hadn't cried since her first year, when Tom Riddle had gotten to her. "But, Neville, we just shouldn't! God-" she looked disgusted with herself. "I'm just making excuses! We need to go get her! Why can't I do ANYTHING right? It's my fault she got captured!"

Padma glared at Neville. "Stop that!" she scolded him. "Stop blaming Ginny; there was nothing she could have done! None of us could have known!I know you're not happy, but there's no need to take it out on the rest of us!"

Neville opened his mouth as if to speak, then sagged. "Sorry." he muttered. "Just...sorry."

Luna's POV

Her arms were wrapped tightly around her knees, which were drawn up to her chin. Her back was to the cold stone wall of the dungeon where she was being kept. Her eyes were wide open, but they stared unseeing into the nearly tangible darkness.

She shivered uncontrollably.

It had caught her completely off guard when Lucius Malfoy had appeared in the girls bathroom and dragged her away. She wasn't sure how he had gotten on the Hogwarts Express; she rather suspected he had been shrunk then hidden in some unsuspecting student's luggage, only to return to full size later. Polyjuice potion was always a possibility too, one of the Junior Death Eaters would be only too glad to give a few hairs away...

Luna also suspected nargles.

So he had dragged her off the train, somehow...she was unconscious during this period of time. Pity. she mused to herself. Knowing how he did that could have been quite useful one day...

Luna gritted her teeth. It's not fair! she thought to herself. I was so HAPPY! Why couldn't it have lasted...why did it all have to be ruined!

"It's not fair." she said quietly, her voice sounding oddly muffled in the chilly, dank air. Nothing happened.

"It's not fair!" she cried more loudly, then stood up, her tangled blond hair cascading down her back. "IT'S NOT FAIR!"

She stood in the middle of the room and opened her mouth wide in preparation to shout, but something stopped her.

"No." she whispered. "I won't give them the satisfaction of hearing my screams. I won't, I won't, I WON'T!"

"More's the pity." she heard a haughty drawl say, and then the door was heaved open. The sudden light was blinding, and Luna was forced to turn away until her eyes adjusted.

"Oh, dear God." Luna sighed, recognizing the voice almost instantly. "Not you!"

"Yes, me!" He was standing with the light behind him, effectively obscuring his features, but the faint hint of light bouncing off his blond hair was enough to confirm Luna's suspicions.

"Malfoy, go away." she said flatly.

"No."

Luna groaned. "Look, I'm already miserable. I'm a captive in what I'm assuming is your BASEMENT. Just....oh, forget it, DON'T leave me alone. Talk to me."

Draco blinked. "Wait...what?"

"It's boring in here. Tell me a joke."

"I don't know any."

Luna rolled her eyes. "Oh, honestly, you must know ONE joke!"

Draco frowned. "Um...why did the chicken cross the road?"

"Why?"

"I haven't a clue." Draco admitted. "Nobody would ever tell me the punchline."

Luna sighed. "That's pathetic."

"I know."

A loud thumping came from upstairs, and Luna heard a hoarse yell. "Hey, boy!"

Draco flinched. "What?" he called back.

"We're done with the other prisoner. Come bring him back downstairs."

"Yes, sir!"

Luna bit her lip. Other prisoner? She didn't like the sound of that.

Draco shot her a warning glance. On the surface, it seemed a glare, but Luna could see undertones of I'm Sorry and Just Hold On A Second and Don't, DON'T say anything!

He was a lot deeper that she had once thought, Luna realized. He didn't really like this life of cheating and lying and pain he was forced to live. He had been drawn in by the tales of glory, then when he realized they were nothing but tales the only think keeping him here was fear.

Not for himself, even. For his mother. And Luna, for the first time, truly admired a Slytherin for just that-for being a Slytherin.

Draco returned, dragging a crumpled body. Luna sucked her breath in, seeing the pain etched in the features...

And then something clicked. She KNEW that face...

It was Ollivander, the wandmaker. She knew they had him, but she didn't realize...

"God..." she breathed.

"I know." Draco said, voice rough. "I never wanted THIS..."

Luna just shook her head.

"I'm sorry..." Draco told her. "But I have to tie you up...If I don't they'll know, and then we'll both be in trouble."

"It's fine." Luna replied absentmindedly. He flicked his wand and ropes knotted around her wrists. Draco levitated Ollivander into the room, setting him down carefully onto the floor, then shot a regretful stare back at Luna.

Luna sank back onto the floor.

She had no wand.

She had no light.

She had no way to help the nearly-dead man lying on the floor.

She had no power, and no control over situation.

All she had was hope, and she could feel even that slipping ever-so-steadily away...


	12. Christmas

"God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs, your feathers are so gray! I am scared by your pointy claws, as I bow to you this day!"

"Luna?" Draco poked his head in through the door.

"Yes, mister Malfoy?" Luna asked sardonically. "Can I help you?"

"Yes. SHUT UP."

Luna opened her eyes even wider than usual in indignation. "But Mr. Malfoy! It's CHRISTMAS! Are you saying you don't like my spirited rendition of 'God Rest Ye Merry Hippogriffs'?"

"Yes."

"Oh, what a SHAME that this poor young boy has already lost his Christmas spirit! I sense a Scrooge in the making..."

Draco frowned. "Luna, you're scaring me..."

"Sing a song, Draco! SING, for heaven's sake! SING!" Luna threw her arms open wide, hands flailing through the air, fingers snatching at invisible tendrils of wind.

Draco smirked. "Looks like you're losing it already...and you've only been here four days...here's your dinner." He pushed a plate of what looked like mashed potatoes, broccoli, and extremely burned chicken across the floor to Luna.

"Thank you, kind sir!" she said with an eerily shrill giggle, then fell to her knees and began hungrily gnawing at the chicken.

"Oh, by the way, Miss Lovegood..." Draco said with an evil smirk. "Christmas was yesterday." He chuckled at the look of shock on her face...

Then send her a subtle wink.

Luna covertly sent him the universal sign for OK, disguising it as a way to wipe her watering eyes, then set her head on her knees, shoulders shaking.

Draco left.

Luna looked closer at her plate of food. She sighed in relief when she saw the smiley face drawn in her mashed potatoes.

The Death Eater had set up monitoring charms to alert them if anything out of the ordinary was happening-namely, if she tried to escape; if Draco tried to help her; or if she died.

How pleasant.

So Luna and Draco had worked out a code, of sorts...he would send her the healing potions Ollivander needed by hiding them in her food. Luna had to be careful about eating because the vials were VERY small, but his cooking was dreadful anyway so she didn't mind.

She stuck her fingers into the potatoes and pulled out the vial. She poured it down Ollivander's throat, and saw a few of his wounds instantly heal. The internal bleeding had stopped, thankfully, and the most dangerous wounds were gone. But his fever was still raging, and Luna was determined to get it down as fast as she could.

And eventually, she did. So passed December; Ollivander getting better while Luna got worse. The Death Eaters still ignored her, and she liked it that way. Draco didn't ignore her, and she liked that too. All alone in a dark cell with a slowly recuperating man, the Malfoy heir was her only source of human contact. His presence helped her more than she could ever have imagined.

And then, one day, in the beginning of January, Bellatrix Lestrange came.

* * *

I'm really sorry about that pathetically short chapter, but I'm finding it really hard to write nowadays because I'm getting kind of bored with this story and I'm not sure how many people are actually reading it anymore. So, if you'd like to see the end of this story, TELL ME or you never will.


	13. Pain

I have been inspired. Thank you. Now that I know that at least SOMEBODY is reading this, I'm much less reluctant to actually sit down and write. Plus, I know exactly where I'm going with this story, and that is indeed a rarity. All my planning would go to waste if I stopped now. Just make sure to keep me on track...(hint hint, review) And two updates in one day? The world must have ended! How incredible! Well, anyway, I'll let you read the story now.

* * *

  
"THIS is the girl?" Bella sneered, nudging Luna in the ribs with her toe. Luna was kneeling on the cold marble floor of the Malfoy's Great Hall, her arms bound in chains behind her back.

Lucius stood nearby, a look of amusement on his pointed features. Narcissa was farther away, seeming completely indifferent; Draco was flat against a wall, his face even paler than usual. His eyes were averted from the spectacle, and he looked guilty.

Not that he had really done anything wrong, particularly. Luna was glad, though, that he seemed to have developed a conscience.

Bella kicked her again, and Luna looked up; her frightened silver eyes meeting the older woman's crazed jet black ones.

Luna hated even looking at Bellatrix. She hated knowing that this monster had complete power over her. She hated knowing that her fate was in the hands of someone who had killed an innocent man she should have known, adding another wound to the heart of Harry Potter, who was now forced to shoulder the near-impossible task of saving the civilized world. She hated, no, LOATHED knowing that here, in front of her very eyes, was the woman who had tortured the Longbottoms into insanity, giving them a fate far worse than death; who had taken Neville's life and torn it to shreds.

And right now, what she feared most was that the same fate would befall her. She feared that she would end up in Saint Mungo's, living a world of emptiness for the rest of her life; not knowing what was happening around her; not recognizing the people she loved. Mindless. Unthinking. An eternity of oblivion, and pain, and fear, and hopelessness. Her last memory would be of immeasurable torture, and that one terrible moment would live on forever; erasing all the joy and beauty and love she had experienced. And she was afraid of what it would do to Neville; the knowledge that one woman had taken the people that were important to him and destroyed them.

Bella kicked her again.

"Stop." Luna said calmly. Her voice did not shake, did not even quaver; did not betray an ounce of the emotion she was feeling. But on the inside, she wanted to curl into a ball and hide and scream and sob her eyes out.

Which was exactly what this monster wanted.

Which was exactly what she would not, no, COULD NOT do.

Bella grinned, revealing teeth that were rotten and brown from her years in Azkaban. "I don't think I will." she cooed, in the most grotesque mimicry of a simper Luna ever heard. "Because I think it's playtime now!"

Just hearing those words sent shivers down Luna's spine. But she kept her facade. "What do you want with me?"

"You have been a bit of a problem in recent months." Lucius spoke up, clipped voice sneering. "So we decided you'd be easier to handle with your arms tied behind your back."

Luna raised her eyebrows. "I should think you'd have bigger things to worry about than the semi-leader of a rebellious school club, but I guess those 'bigger things' are a bit too good about evading capture."

"Shut up!" Bella snarled viciously, all false sweetness gone now. "And don't get a big head-it wasn't all you, not by a long shot. See, one of those 'bigger things' is your dear, dear father. He's been a bit of an insurrectionist lately, with that ghastly paper full of lies he's been publishing. So we took you. And now he's under our thumb. He's already released an issue that tell the truth at last! And we have you to thank. Aren't you GLAD to have helped the cause."

"Daddy wouldn't give in so easily." Luna said, head held high, voice filled with conviction. But really, she knew it was true. Her father had lost so many people in his life that he would do ANYTHING to prevent the loss of one more. And now that he had given in, maybe...

"He would. And he did. And, in theory, we should be releasing you right about now. IF we wanted to make good on our promise..."

Luna felt her heart sink. It was a small hope, little more than a glimmer, but it had been there nonetheless. And it was her last hope, her ONLY hope, and the loss had been hard.

"Which we do." Bella said, voice filled with disappointment and anger. "Your stupid father made Lucius swear an Unbreakable Vow. You have to go home before midnight tonight, or Lucius dies."

Luna couldn't bear to stifle a grin. She was nearly free! She could go home. Go back to Hogwarts. She could go back to Neville!

"We just brought you up here for one last parting gift." Narcissa said for the first time, her voice intensely condescending. "CRUCIO!"

The pain was excruciating, but it was over quickly. Luna didn't let a noise leave her mouth. If she would be free soon, there was no good in letting them hear her scream.

"What?" Lucius jeered. "Was one present not enough for you? Well, here's another."

Lucius's curse hurt far, far more than his wife's. Narcissa's had felt like her bones were breaking. Lucius' felt as if her bones were being irreparably shattered, then welded crudely together and then bludgeoned apart again. And it lasted longer too; nearly a full minute as opposed to the three seconds or so of agony she had received from the snooty blonde.

Oh yes; it was easy to tell who really meant it.

And then Bellatrix picked up her wand. And Luna was being liquidated, then frozen, then broken. She was burning to death, then freezing. Her bones were being stretched, then compacted. She was being pulled apart, then pressed back together. She felt like Prometheus from the old myth, when eagles came to peck out his liver. But to Luna, this torture felt much worse. It was like dragons clawing out her innards, then slowly pulling her flesh apart; skinning her alive.

And yet, on the outside, there was no visible damage.

And yet, on the outside, Luna did not scream.

And yet, it would not end.

"Aunt Bella!" she heard Draco scream as if from far away. "Stop, stop, STOP! It's been nearly ten minutes, you can't do this anymore!"

"Weakling!" the Lestrange woman spat at him, and the pain increased even more. Luna nearly blacked out, but the agony was so intense it wouldn't allow her.

"Bellatrix, stop!" Narcissa cried.

"Who are you to tell me what to do?" Bella shouted.

"Bellatrix, you really shouldn't do that too much longer." Lucius said, voice as emotionless as usual. "We want her useful to the Dark Lord, and I don't know how much longer her mind can survive."

"Fine!" Bella hissed, and dropped the curse. Luna lay, shaking, on the marble. She saw a small smudge of blood on the floor, and wondered disjointedly whose it was. Then she realized that it was her own, that she bitten her lip ferociously to hold back the cries of pain.

Even Amycus Carrow's detentions had nothing, NOTHING, on Bellatrix Lestrange.

The clock struck quarter past eleven.

Vaguely, Luna heard Bella shouting at Draco. Ordering him to do something. With an effort, she lifted her eyes to his face. He was shaking his head and saying something, but Luna's mind would comprehend the words. All she was thinking, over and over, as a kind of endless mantra, was "One hour. One hour, and I can go home. And they need me safe for the Vow, they need me safe and alive and it's only for less than ONE MORE HOUR..."

She saw a single gleaming tear leak out of Draco's eye, saw his features twist in regret and indecision and sadness. She saw him lift his wand and point it at her, saw his lips move as they said an incantation.

And then she felt the pain.

It was weaker than even those of the Slytherin students who handed out detentions, but she still felt something snap. It was the shock, more than anything. She shouldn't have been shocked by it, of course. She always had known that Draco's loyalty was first to his own well-being, second to his family, and last to his slowly growing conscience. By giving in to Bellatrix's order, he had saved himself at the cost of a halfblood; satisfying his first and second priorities. She knew that to the spoiled teenager, his action made perfect sense. She understood why he had done it. And yet, she had come to consider him an ally, a friend even. He had helped her save Ollivander; he had talked to her when nobody else had. He warned her of the danger of every action she almost made. He had even given her a Chocolate Frog once; had hidden it under some green beans.

She knew it was foolish, but she had almost expected some honor, some loyalty from him...

How stupid.

She opened her mouth and screamed for the first time. It was a dreadful, high keening noise, hurting her own ears and tearing her throat raw. But she couldn't stop it....her eyes were squeezed shut to block out the harsh reality. She could feel hot blood trickling down her chin, could feel the gradual release of the pain. It had lasted only about twenty seconds, but it had seemed like an eon.

Luna heard four pairs of footsteps leave the hall. Draco's were a hesitant shuffle; Lucius's were punctuated by the sharp tap of his cane. Narcissa's high heels made impatient clicks on the marble floor. And Bellatrix...her footsteps were horrible. They were graceful and languid, like those of a great predatory cat. But that wasn't the terrible bit. It was here footsteps had that odd cadence of skipping.

She was skipping.

She had seen Luna's agony, and she had loved it. Euphoria, that was the word. Torturing others gave the Lestrange woman a sense of euporia.

Luna pushed herself to her knees and pulled her tangled hair behind her shoulder, then leaned forward and emptied her stomach on the marble floor, heaving and heaving until nothing came up, and then still retching until her throat was raw and burning from the stomach acid. Luna scooted weakly away from the puddle of vomit and collapsed on her back, head cracking on the floor.

She didn't care.

The clock struck midnight, and she felt hot tears of relief trickle down her cheeks. She was safe; she could leave. She would never have to go through this kind of pain again!

Bellatrix reentered the room, smug smile still present. She dragged Luna to her feet, and pulled her out the door. Luna was so happy she didn't even notice were she was being taken until she was her cell again. Bella pushed her through the door, and she landed on all fours with a slap; rough stone floor scraping the skin off the palm of her hands.

"What..." Luna mumbled slowly. Her mind couldn't wrap itself around what was happening. "Why aren't I going home?"

"Home?" Bella cackled. "Why would we send you back?"

"The Vow..."

"Oh, that. It was just some stupid lackey who swore. We can afford to lose a few minions here and there."

"But you said you were letting me go..." Luna rasped.

"I lied." Bella said, basking in the way Luna seemed to collapse from the knowledge. She licked her lips as if the terrible words were delicious, more satisfying than food. "Sweet dreams, honey! I'll see you tomorrow!"

* * *

  
Um....wow. I did NOT know I had the ability to write something so....disturbing. Well, it disturbed me, anyway, and I wrote it. I did not plan on those words coming out of my fingers, but they did, and it kind of makes me wonder what's going on in that head of mine, to be honest. Well, please review, if only to tell me how messed up I am!


	14. Slipping Away

Luna had become good at coping.

She had nursed Ollivander back to some semblance of health. Well, he wasn't exactly in his prime, but he wasn't at death's door either, and she thought she deserved some sort of commendation for that. Especially when the resources she had been given were taken into consideration.

Maybe, mused Luna one night after a 'fun' time with Bellatrix, she should become a Healer rather than a magicryptyzoologist. After all, discovering new creatures was unlikely to help anybody. But healing? Luna had the sneaking suspicion that she was going to be doing a lot of damage in the months ahead, and she wanted to be able to help others. A sort of redemption, she thought.

She could be an Auror, Luna knew. She was DAMN good with her wand. Everybody had always underestimated her because of her, well, oddness, but Luna had easily learned everything she had been taught in the DA faster than nearly anyone. Hermione Granger. That's who had consistently beaten her out. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown had some spells they completely aced, and so did a few other Ravenclaws. Marietta Edgecombe, sad to say, had been a quick shot with a Petrificus Totalus. But overall, Luna was terrific at defense; better than Ginny in some areas, even. Other than Harry, Hermione was the only one to get a Patronus before Luna, and even then Luna suspected she'd had prior tutoring from Harry.

But what was being an Auror other than death and destruction? It was for a good cause, she knew, but Luna didn't have that inner hardness a job like that required.

THAT was how Luna coped.

She mused. She composed music, she wrote poetry, she drew on the walls in her own blood. Bellatrix had taken to using a knife rather than the Cruciatus lately, for which Luna was both grateful and regretful, and Luna supposed that if there was no way to heal herself, she might as well get some beauty out of the pain.

It had been just over a month since that terrible night, taking Luna to the beginning of February. It hadn't been nearly as extreme since that first session, Bellatrix no longer daring to hold the curse on for long. But still, each time Luna could feel her mind taking longer to rev back up to its usual status. She could feel some thoughts simply slipping away, could feel ideas slipping through the cracks that never had before. She had problems remembering simple facts; and living in dreams became easier than facing the real world. But she wasn't going to give up so easily!

Every night, when Bellatrix held the curse for just a few seconds longer, Luna could feel her mind starting to slip. When she would pull that terrible silver knife she was so fond of out of who-knows-where, it became just a little harder to remember who she truly was.

And so, that was the turning point in her relationship with Mr. Ollivander. Before, he had been completely out of it and she had nursed him back to life. Now, as he was recovering, Luna had begun to depend on him. When she would be sent back to her cell after a meeting with Bellatrix, and want nothing but sleep, Ollivander would say no. He would force her to reiterate her life story, and when she simply couldn't hold on anymore, he would talk to her. He told her about the family he had lost in the war against Grindelwald, and when that became too hard for him, he taught her wandlore.

Luna quite liked that. She learned about the seven hundred and thirteen materials originally acceptable for wandmaking. Most of them had fallen out of use for various reasons-extinction or immense rarity of the creatures the wands were made of. If they came from an incredibly dangerous animal, that also made it practically impossible to gather ingredients. The basilisk, who had sixteen separate body parts suitable for wands, was both savage and scarce. In fact, the last known basilisk was lying dead on the floor of the Chamber of Secrets. And upon hearing that, Ollivander of course made plans to harvest it as soon as the war was over.

He taught Luna everything he knew, and a few educated guesses he had never before revealed. Luna learned astronomy, astrology, algebra, and Mandarin Chinese. Once it was evident that she was picking that up quite quickly, Ollivander also taught her French, Spanish, German, Gobbledegook, and Mermish. She was fluent in all of those by the time of her release.

So she was learning all that and remembering it all, and yet her memories of who she truly was were just slipping away. Luna retreated into herself, living in a sort of endless night. There was nothing to punctuate the time passing by; it was always the same. Lessons, food, torture, over and over and over. More people came to cell after a time; Dean Thomas and a goblin. Dean provided someone to talk to; and she nearly rejoined reality. But it was too hard, and the emptiness simply continued....

Until one day, Luna was listening with a small fraction of her mind to a long involved tale about a wand made from dementor bone and lethifold skin; the darkest wand ever to exist. The Souleater. So she was hearing about that and struggling to get a hold on life, and suddenly Harry and Ron dropped into the room. She had heard some sort of commotion from upstairs but didn't know the source; and seeing her friends brought her hope back.


	15. Endings and Beginnings

AN: So I decided to just finish this thing off. It won't be good, but, well, neither was any of the rest of the story, so hopefully this should at least tie up all the loose ends. Yeah. I know its been two years. But now it's done.

Disclaimer: Not mine.

**Edit: **Just reread my last chapter and about half of it didn't post. Congrats to me on that screwup. Sorry about that; hopefully this should help.

* * *

Neville shoved his hands into his pockets and closed his eyes. He had paused outside the door to the room where Luna was in order to do his daily ritual. Every time he came to the St. Mungo's ward where she had been for the past three and a half weeks, he stopped and bargained. With God.

Every day, he promised God that if Luna woke up, he would go to church. Or become a priest. Or never say any mean words ever again, ever. He offered everything he had to give in return for Luna's consciousness, and each day he felt that desperate spark of hope flare in him as he opened his eyes after his prayer and turned the knob. For that split second between the time he begged God for Luna back and when he saw her, still unconscious, in a hospital bed, he was hopeful.

Neville had used to do this with his parents, tallied up his transgressions and then atoning for them, hoping that if he ever made it into the positive side of the brutally honest record books, that his parents would wake up. But nothing ever came of it, and he had forced himself to stop, forced himself to stop keeping count of his various sins and blaming himself for what had happened to them. But with Luna, it was his fault she was there, or it was more his fault than it had been before. It had been his idea, after all, to restart the DA, and maybe she still would have been kidnapped to stop Xenophilius from publishing.

But maybe not, Neville couldn't stop thinking, and wondering, and wallowing in guilt and self-loathing.

Today was a Wednesday. On Wednesdays he promised to give away everything he had to charity … as long as Luna woke up.

His eyes opened. His right hand landed on the brass doorknob, and he hesitated, resting it there. The spark of hope flared, somewhere deep in his chest. "Please..." he whispered, staring intently at the ceiling. "Please..."

He turned the knob, and pushed open the door.

Luna wasn't awake.

He closed his eyes again, the blow of her injury hitting him like a blow to the stomach, every bit as forceful the twenty-fourth time as it had been the first.

No, he couldn't do it, he couldn't go sit next to her and talk to her unmoving body, pretending she could hear him. Neville couldn't force himself to go through that excruciating charade.

And he'd spent so much time in hospitals as a child. He couldn't bear it anymore: the smell, the lights, the tile, the bustling Healers.

Neville walked over to Luna's prone form, pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead, and then fled.

He didn't go far, though. He couldn't, not really. Even when he was fed up with the whole hospital environment, he loved Luna too much too really leave. He had tried, but somehow he could never manage to actually leave her side for more than a few minutes.

He apparated to a park. He wouldn't stay long, he told himself. He just needed to breathe clear air, to get out of the blinding white hospital that was too loud and too quiet at the same time. The park was relatively near the apartment he'd rented in the city so he could visit Luna every day. It wasn't a large apartment, but he really only slept there, and it was enough. And the park was beautiful: green grass, tall trees, and a fairly large set of play equipment. Luckily, the park was abandoned at that moment, and Neville walked over to the swingset, snagging a swing and swaying back and forth as he thought.

Nobody knew what it was that had hit her. Neville had glanced over in the middle of battle and seen here standing there bravely, battling two experienced Death Eaters at once and holding her own. She'd smiled at him and, as she lost concentration for that split second, a curse made it through her shields and hit her right in the middle of her chest. The Death Eater who'd cast the spell had died not soon after, killed by a rebound of his own Bludgeoning Curse. Neville was glad the man had gotten his just desserts, but that meant that nobody could identify what exactly had hit Luna.

None of the Healers could find anything physically wrong with Luna. They had told Neville time and time again that she should be able to wake up at any given moment. But she hadn't woken up yet, hadn't even stirred, and nobody knew why. Healer McCaffrey, who was in charge of Luna's case, had hypothesized that the mental and physical torment Luna had gone through in the basement of Malfoy Manor had put her near the edge of what any reasonable person could tolerate. And so she had been rendered immobile for weeks, pushed past her breaking point by something as weak as a mere Nightmare Hex, or a Tripping Jinx.

He couldn't do this anymore. The war was over. Harry had won; Voldemort was dead. But so were many, many other people. Some of them had deserved it: Bellatrix Lestrange, for example should've gone years ago. But most of them hadn't deserved death. Colin Creevey. Fred Weasley. Lupin. Tonks. So many, many people...

Neville missed Luna. She was his best friend, his confidant. They were each others shoulders to cry on, they watched each others backs. They understood what it was like to be an outcast, to be alone. They both had the same kind of stubborn courage.

But now Neville had to get by without his blonde companion, and it was hard. So hard.

Neville slid off the swing and began to walk. He didn't know where he was going, but that was all right. He didn't need to be anywhere anytime soon, and a bit of wandering would do him good.

But all of a sudden something was gripping him, an urge to see Luna again, even if she was unconscious. He had left too soon, he realized now. He needed to see her, to hear her breathe, to watch her hair flutter in the breeze from the open window.

St. Mungo's again, then. Neville Apparated in, then walked slowly upstairs back to the room where Luna was. On the way, he passed the oh-so-familiar room where his parents were. He looked in on them. Lockhart was chattering away mindlessly. Alice seemed to be folding hundreds of pieces of paper into little cranes, and Frank was staring out the window.

"Hey, Mum. Hey, Dad." Neville said softly, stepping over the threshold. Neither acknowledged him, though Lockhart shot him a wide grin and began prattling anew on some mundane topic. Neville picked up one of the paper cranes. It was surprisingly well done, and Neville reasoned that origami certainly was progress over her previous habit of crumpling gum wrappers. He stood there for a few more minutes, trying to think of something, anything, to say, but eventually he just smiled at his parents. It was hard. It was always hard.

Neville walked out of the room again, clutching the paper crane. It was made of glossy scarlet paper. He entered Luna's room and sat down next to her, placing the crane on her bedside table.

He gently grabbed her right hand, which was lying on top of her blankets, and began to speak. He hadn't done this before, he hadn't really talked to her beyond a few encouraging whispers. Yes, she was asleep or unconscious or something, but Neville didn't care. He needed to confide in her again; he'd missed that too much to give it up for something silly like her lack of awareness. Words poured out of him like water pouring over Niagara Falls, and as he recounted to her the story of who had and hadn't survived the war, he felt a few tears trickle down his cheeks. Eventually, as his voice grew hoarse and he ran out of topics, Neville quieted and, slowly, gradually, drifted into sleep.

* * *

I opened my eyes. The ceiling was white. No sign of the murals of my friends I had painted. But no sign of any Death Eaters, either so that was a plus. I was pretty sure I was in the hospital wing.

With quite a lot of effort, I pushed myself up onto my elbows and looked around. Huh. I seemed to be not in the Hospital Wing with Madam Pomfrey, but in Saint Mungo's instead. That was an interesting development.

Neville was there sitting right beside me. He was sleeping, somehow, in an uncomfortable-looking wooden chair. I considered waking him immediately, to spare him later discomfort, but he looked so exhausted I couldn't begrudge him the rest.

The room was bright, lit by magical sconces on the walls, but I looked out the window by my bed and was that the sky was a marvelous combination of pinks, oranges, and purples. It was sunset, then. That was all right.

I had a sneaking suspicion that there was something crucial I was forgetting it, but my mind couldn't grasp hold of the memory. My mind felt more delicate than it ever had before. And my thoughts felt … slippery, almost. Like wet glass, or soap bubbles. I couldn't properly get a grip on the fragile ideas bouncing around in my mind, but the harder I tried, the easier it got. I cast my thoughts back as far as I could. I remembered a lot of shadowy memories in the basement of Malfoy Manor, and the bright, hectic, chaotic, terrifying memories that came from the Final Battle at Hogwarts.

Was Harry dead? I didn't think so. I had a shaky memory of Voldemort announcing his death, and Neville killing a snake with a sword, but nothing after that point presented itself to me at all. As I was lying in a hospital bed and not a grave, I figured that Voldemort had been defeated and, going with that, I assumed that Harry was alive and well and once more being proclaimed "Savior of the Wizarding World'.

I figured. Maybe I ought to wake Neville up after all. Just to make sure. I reached out and grabbed his hand. He didn't respond. I poked him in the shoulder, and he started, fidgeting around in the chair until his eyes locked on mine.

"Oh my God. You're awake." Neville's voice was hoarse, but I heard such tenderness and joy in that simple sentence that I couldn't help grinning at him.

"I've missed you." I said simply. Neville gave a short, dry chuckle.

"I've missed you, too," he said, and the way he said it, I knew there was a story behind the words. And then he leaned forward and gave me a hug, a really awkward hug since I was lying down and he was in a chair, and then he burst into tears.

* * *

"How long was I out?"

"Three weeks and four days."

"Why? What happened to me?"

"We don't know."

"Harry won?"

"Yes."

"Did – Who – Is everyone all right?"

"No."

"Which – How many – That is to say... Who?"

"A … A lot of people, Luna. A lot."

"Oh."

* * *

I left the hospital on the seventh of July. I was weak from weeks in a sickbed, but mostly I was glad to be outside. It was a beautiful day, and I relished the feeling of sun on my skin. I went home to Daddy's house, which had been restored rather haphazardly after an incident he was reluctant to discuss. I didn't care too much about the details. I was home. It was good.

I spent a few months like that, at home with Daddy. I liked peace. I liked the way that the whole rest of the world seemed to disappear, until it was just me and Daddy and the sun. But that couldn't last forever. And it didn't.

But it lasted long enough.

* * *

On September 13th, I met Neville in a park. We had been owling regularly, and he'd stopped by a few times ever since I'd gotten out of the hospital, but I'd rather been ignoring him. I'd been ignoring everyone and everything, it wasn't anything personal. But when he'd asked me to meet him there, in that park, I decided that I'd done enough hiding from the rest of the world. So I went to the park.

It was another sunny day, and there were a lot of muggle children running around, shouting and laughing. Neville was sitting on a bench. I joined him.

"Hello." I greeted him, but he wasn't going to put up with small talk.

"Do you want to get married?" he blurted. He immediately turned a deep shade of red, but he didn't retract the words. "When I proposed at Christmas, that was stupid. We were too young then. I didn't know what I was doing. It's good you never answered, because back then you were too young to decide. I was too young to ask.

"But I'm older now, and you're older too. We've been through a lot; we've been forced to grow up more than we should have. But the thing is, now we've grown up. We're different people. And I think I'm ready now. Before, when I asked the first time, I wanted you by my side as we weathered the coming storm. Well, that didn't happen. We weathered the storm separately. This time, I'm asking because I felt what it was like to do things without you, and I hated it. We've done war by ourselves. Let's try doing peace together."

Neville slid off the bench and got down on one knee. He pulled a ring out of his pocket. "I love you, Luna Lovegood. And now that the time has come for us to start living our lives, I don't want to live my life without you. What do you say?"

I didn't say anything at all. I just reached out and took his hand. And he could see the conflicting emotions on my face, and he could see the tears pouring down my cheeks. And I stood up, and he stood up, and we wrapped our arms around each other and cried together. And together we cried for the ghosts of our past, and together we cried for our future.

And maybe I said yes, right then and there, and we went and got married and lived happily ever after, and Neville grew magical plants and I looked after magical animals. Maybe we lived in an idyllic cottage in the British countryside, with two of the most perfect children in the universe. Maybe, with every passing day we fell more and more in love with each other, and didn't fall out of love until the day we died. It's a good ending, maybe even a great ending, and quite possibly my favorite of all possible endings. Believe it if you'd like.

And maybe I went to South America to get rid of the shadows of Voldemort's reign. And maybe I came back home, after three years of research in the Amazon, only to find Neville teaching Herbology and engaged to Hannah Abbott. And maybe that hurt, a lot, and maybe I turned to Rolf Scamander to make the pain go away. And maybe it worked, and maybe I found love again, and maybe we had two of the most perfect children in the universe.

That ending isn't nearly so poetic, but that doesn't make it any less good. I don't care which one you pick. They're both good endings. Believe what you want. Isn't that what we all do? In the end?

In the end, life was hard. But I survived, and Neville survived, and a lot of people who should have lived didn't, and a lot of people who shouldn't have lived did. And we loved each other back then. And... And... And...

And in the end, that was enough.

* * *

I just wanted to give a huge thank you to absolutely everyone who read this story, for sticking with it even though I'm a terrible updater, and to everyone who read it even though it's, frankly, awful. I mean, there's an entire chapter in which I praise bands I liked in middle school. Bad bad bad. But all of you read it, and that means so much to me. Thanks for coming on this ungodly long, fairly circuitous, and quite anticlimactic journey with me. It was great.


End file.
